Slayers in the Night
by hellish-angel2003
Summary: Lina Inverse is dead...and resurrected? A whole new journey begins in the Night! Hey, the Night needs protecting too! Mainly focuses on Lina. No pairing of any sorts.
1. Prologue

Slayers in the Night  
  
Prologue: Death of A Sorceress  
  
It was a beautiful day. The sky was clear blue, the sun shone freely with clouds hanging loosely to either side. The birds were chirping, communicating to each other, perching nicely on the branches.  
  
Ironic how a day this beautiful was chosen to hold a funeral.  
  
There were few mourners who attended the funeral. Five to be exact, including the priest. Of course, not many can attend as it was held within the Seiruun Castle grounds.  
  
"Lord, please guide her to safety," the priest prayed. "And let her be free to..."  
  
He continued as the princess of Seiruun, dressed in a black gown and veil, began to sob.  
  
A tall blonde, in a black mercenary's outfit, put his arms around the young girl, trying to comfort her. But he himself, with blood shot eyes, looked away from the casket, trying desparately not to let the tears forming in his eyes leak out. The chimera next to him looked sadly at the body which laid before them.  
  
They never thought it could happen to her. Not to her, never. She was so full of life, so much that it seemed even impossible to think this could have happened. And what ate at each and every one of their hearts was that they could not stop it. Nothing they can do could bring her back to life now...  
  
"She is in peace, my child. She is resting in a peaceful slumber," the priest ended, patting the princess on her shoulder.  
  
He bowed to the king and left.  
  
The princess openly cried. Sorrow pouring out of her heart. All the men stood and held their tongue, none of them knew what to say to make her feel any better.  
  
"Why?" She asked to no one in particular. "Why does this have to happen?"  
  
Her father, the king, gave her a comforting hug, to no avail, her sobs only grew harder.  
  
"Amelia, you know nobody lives forever," he said soothingly.  
  
"But why her?" Amelia sobbed. "Why HER?! She--she was like--she was like a sister to me!" She choked out and buried her head into her fathers outfit.  
  
All King Philionel could do was sigh and pat his daughter's back, trying desparately to sooth his daughter. He looked at the two men standing before him and nodded. They nodded in return. Philionel led his daughter out of the Castle's church. Amelia's sob grew softer as they exited.  
  
The two men stood numbly towards the exit, they turned back to the casket. They went closer, to see the body clearer, as if to capture the last moments of their beloved friend.  
  
Her body was pale, making her blend well into the white gown she wore. She looked as if she was just sleeping, her face peaceful, but the two knew better than to believe such thing. They knew that she was never going to wake up from this slumber, knew they would never see her in all her glory again.  
  
Zelgadis, the chimera, sighed. He pat the mercenary next to him in the back, knowing that this hurted him far more than anybody else, and turned towards the exit.  
  
As the chimera exited, a tear slid down Gourry's face. He'd like to know the answer to Amelia's question. Why her? It was so confusing to Gourry. It was too sudden. It did not fit in well that SHE of all people would be dead like thsi. He imagined her in a great battle, fighting to save the world--again. L-sama forbids she'd die in the battle but that was how Gourry imagined her to have done.  
  
He took her hands into one of his, her hands were ice cold. With his other hand he stroke her fiery mane, reflecting beautifully from the sun.  
  
"I love you, Lina Inverse," he whispered the loving words.  
  
He gave her a soft kiss on her lips, cold lips. Imprinting the face of his beloved on his heart and soul, he stood straight, turned, and walked out of the church.  
  
That was the funeral of Lina Inverse, Sorceress Supreme, the Enemy of All Who Lived.  
  
The world continued on, as if nothing had happened.  
  
-----  
  
Notes: So's I like to apologize for writing another story while the Slayers: Dragonne Balle is still unfinished! D; But--but this idea just popped into my head one day, driving home from work and i just HAD to put it out into a story before it fades away into the back of my mind! But don't worry, I'm still continuing the Dragon Ball one!  
  
Ok ok, you guys didn't come here to read my notes but I'd like to say a few things regarding this up and coming story. This isn't gonna be all that dark, i'll make it humurous and slayers-like. This story will focus mainly on Lina (she's my favorite character!) :D with not many roles for the other characters (for what I have in mind, the other characters will probably only be mentioned here and there, but not really make an appearance). Gomen! Please come back! D; 


	2. Chapter 1

Slayers in the Night  
  
Chapter 1: Beginning With Life  
  
"Alright, guys! We made it!! 'All you can eat for a silver-coin' here we come!!" Lina Inverse, Sorceress Supreme said happily.  
  
"My stomach is ready, Lina!" Gourry cheered.  
  
"Let's do it!" Amelia said bubbily.  
  
The three starved travelers, plus an irate chimera, rushed down the green hills that lead to the village of Margous. A small village that did not realize what a terrible mistake they made in opening up an all you can eat restaurant for only a silver-coin. The chimera, probably the only sensible one at the moment, sweatdropped as he predicted that these three fellow companions of his was going to eat the restaurant out of business. Poor villagers...  
  
-----  
  
Spring was befalling them and as such, the grass was green, the flowers bloomed, it was mating season for the live stock, the sun hung brightly in the sky. None of this mattered as the three travelers gorged down food like there was no tomorrow. Zelgadis calmly sipped his cup of coffee. The owner only stood by helplessly, silently crying.  
  
After they were done, and as Zelgadis predicted, ate every last bit of food the restaurant could provide, they leaned back on their chairs and patted their bulging stomaches, particularly Lina.  
  
"Whew! That was worth the travel, yknow!" Lina said happily.  
  
"Uh-huh," Gourry lazily agreed.  
  
A vein popped out of the chimera's rocky forehead. "Have you forgotten that the reason we've traveled all across the lands was to look for clues for my cure?"  
  
Lina waved his comments away. "C'mon, Zel. We need a few accomodations on the way, right? What's wrong with indulging ourselves a little?"  
  
"This," Zel waved his hand across the table full of dirty dishes, "isn't a little."  
  
"A silver-coin says it is," Lina said and winked.  
  
Zel sighed. "What I meant to say was: every where that we've head to was just for you guys to indulge your stomaches! Nothing in this village will lead me any closer to my cure!"  
  
"Geez, Zel, you need to calm down a bit," Gourry commented, unable to comprehend Zel's irritated mood.  
  
Amelia nodded in agreement. "Mr. Gourry's right! You stress out too much, Mr. Zelgadis! Sometimes we just need to enjoy peace and justice across the lands!"  
  
"More like peace and justice in your stomach," Zel mumbled.  
  
Amelia sweatdropped. "That's just an added bonus, heh heh."  
  
"Yes, well I'm not looking for an 'added bonus', Amelia. I've dedicated my life into finding this cure! It's really annoying when you guys don't take it seriously!" Zel said and slammed his hands on the table, causing what little customers the restaurant had to look at them.  
  
He gave an aggravated sigh. "I'm done for the day. Do whatever you people want, I'm going to find an inn."  
  
The three sweatdropped as the chimera stomped out of the restaurant.  
  
"Ya think we daddle too much?" Lina asked.  
  
"Paddle? We paddle alot?" Gourry blinked.  
  
Lina bonked him on the head. "DADDLE, jellyfish brains!"  
  
Amelia looked at the door. "I didn't realize he'd get so upset...oh, Mr. Zelgadis..." She sighed. One more step back from him...  
  
"There's an inn in this village?" Lina asked.  
  
Amelia nodded and said, "Yup, I noticed it on the way into the restaurant. It's cute, with a hot spring too!"  
  
"Alright! Then what are we waitin' for?!" Lina cheered. "Let's go! Then, when Mr. Stone-head is done sulking, we can really start looking for his stupid cure!"  
  
"Ms. Lina, that's mean," Amelia said. "You know it's important to Mr. Zelgadis."  
  
Lina waved Amelia's comment aside. "He needs to start accepting it. He's not the ONLY one that's suffering, yknow. Geez, he makes it seem like all the enhancements on his body is such a tragic error! With all the adventures we've been through, that body of his saved his ass."  
  
"...well, yea..."  
  
Lina grunted. "Anyway! Let's go to that hotspring! I haven't had a nice soak since the last village!"  
  
"Which you blew up," Gourry commented.  
  
"Hey! I was trying to save it from the bandits! Gimme some credit!" Lina said defensively.  
  
The two sweatdropped. From their point of view, it was more like a ruthless pursue. The bandits had ran into the village for safety, they were surrendering to the villagers to take them to the proper authority. But the leader had insulted Lina Inverse and she was not one to be reckon with. It was proof when she blew them and the whole village up with a Dragon Slave. With pitchforks and whatever they can find handy, the villagers drove them all out. Everyone, particularly Zelgadis, was especially irritated ever since.  
  
"Hey, hey! What's with the look?!" Lina asked. "I didn't do anything wrong!"  
  
"Uh-huh...."  
  
"Anyway! Let's go check into the inn!" Lina said and stomped out of the restaurant. The other two followed cautiously behind, afraid that at any minute, she'll whip around with a Fireball in hand.  
  
"You people don't appreciate me at all..." They heard her grumble.  
  
------  
  
The hot springs turned out to be bigger than the inn itself. It was more like a public spring for the whole small village. It was behind the inn but it was not only for the guests who stayed at the inn, it was for anyone who was willing to pay the entrance fee and abide by the policies. The springs was actually built from part of the forest and being so, all that was separating them from trees and wildlife were giants rocks. They could not tell whether some strong villagers gathered them together or it was naturally that way.  
  
It was a plain spring, not too shabby but nothing luxurious either. The group could not have cared less since they did not bathe for over three days now. The place was basically made of sticks and stones, or rather really, really big rocks. Entering the place, the wooden walk way creaked under their feet. Various paintings and decorative vases stood to the side of the wooden walls.  
  
The changing area was separated into two sides, however, the spring was not. Since the village was so small, the group figured it was not so well populated. To have a separating wall would have wasted more money for its construction.  
  
Soaking in the hot spring, the group relaxed. Even Zelgadis seemed to relax. The others found him cleaning his wirey, blue hair in one of the tubs meant specifically for cleaning. He ignored them for the time being and the group decided to leave him alone.  
  
Gourry and Zelgadis moved away from the girls, letting them have some of their privacy, although other travelers like themselves grouped together and chatted lively.  
  
"So where do you think we'll go next, Ms. Lina?" Amelia asked.  
  
Leaning on the towel-padded rock, Lina looked at Amelia and said, "I dunno. Wherever Zel wants to go, I guess. If he doesn't take off on his own again, I mean." She closed her eyes lazily and relaxed.  
  
Amelia sighed. "Yeah..." She peered at the chimera and quickly looked at the open night sky. It was filled with stars and Amelia noticed that the moon was full...and blue...? She never noticed it before but the moon was blue?  
  
I guess I should have paid more attention in astronomy lessons, Amelia thought to herself.  
  
Shrugging, she scanned the springs, casually, of course. There were both travelers and villagers in there. Sticking to each other's groups, not mingling with outsiders or insiders. Her eyes fell on a man and a girl, that sat side by side. She lingered on them longer than the others she had no interest of. The man had white hair, in the moonlight, it almost looks silver. He had red eyes, however it was a dull old red, not like Lina's ruby-red. Amelia seen those eyes before, it was held by old men that's been through too many years in life, old eyes, she'd call them. Odd how she thought the man had looked like he was only in his early thirties. What was even more odd was The girl looked no older than Amelia was, perhaps even younger, with soft-looking brown hair that fell from her little, oval-shaped face. But her eyes, red, old eyes as well, made Amelia think twice calling her a young girl. How can a young girl and fairly young man look like their life has been sucked out of them?  
  
For some reason, Amelia could not take her eyes off of them. Out of the corner of her vision, she noticed that others were looking at them too. Turning back to their friends, then taking another glance at the two, man and girl.  
  
"...melia...Amelia!" Lina snapped Amelia back from her reveries.  
  
"Huh? What?" Amelia turned back to look at the sorceress.  
  
"Amelia, what's wrong with you?" Lina asked. "Don't you know it's rude to stare at people? What was so interesting anyway?" She looked at what Amelia was looking at. "Tell me what's so interesting?"  
  
"I...I'm not sure...I just couldn't keep my eyes off of them," Amelia replied. She took another glance at them.  
  
Lina grunted. "Other people are doing it too. That is SO rude. I wouldn't want anybody to stare at us when we're in a hot spring, yknow."  
  
As if the two mesmerizing strangers heard what was being said about them, they turned to look at Lina and Amelia.  
  
Amelia flinched. "Th-they're looking at us, Ms. Lina." She hid behind Lina's back, not sure as to why she suddenly felt a little scared.  
  
"Ugh, see, Amelia? They're mad because nobody would give them any privacy," Lina said and sighed.  
  
Lina looked back at the two strangers, indeed they were now staring unblinkingly at them, and shouted, "Hey, you guys! I'm sorry my friend here's been starin' at ya, but she didn't mean to. She apologizes for her rudeness!"  
  
The two blinked in mild surprise, as if something Lina had done was simply beyond belief. The others in the spring were also surprised as Lina noticed them flinch.  
  
Lina arched an eyebrow, curious as to what was so surprising that she had done.  
  
Murmur began around the spring as people turned back to chat with their friends.  
  
Lina turned to look at Amelia. "Was it something I said?"  
  
"Uh..Ms. Lina, th-they're still staring at us..." Amelia said helplessly.  
  
"Amelia, WHAT is wrong with you? Why are you shivering?" Lina asked. Without waiting for a reply, she turned back to the two people who was still looking at them. "Look, we apologized! What else do you people want?!" Again, she did not wait for a reply as she suddenly stood up. "Ugh! This just ruined my bath!" With a pink bathing suit, and a towel around her waist, she left Amelia, who tried to cling onto her, and stomped off towards the exit.  
  
The girl suddenly stood up as Lina neared the door, the man followed suit.  
  
As Lina pulled at the sliding doors, she felt a shiver down her spine and turned back. She didn't know why, but she looked at the thick forest that hung from the rocks. She abandoned the doors and went back into the shallow waters. The leaves suddenly moved.  
  
"Guys!" Lina called out to her friends. "Something's moving from the trees!"  
  
Everybody, not just her friends, stood up and looked towards the direction Lina was pointing too.  
  
"Eek! A peeping tom!" one of the travelers shrieked.  
  
Some girls panicked and promptly left the spring. Other were still not convinced and stayed.  
  
Lina went back to her friends.  
  
"Are you sure, Lina?" Zelgadis asked, readying a spell.  
  
For some reason, none of them believed that this was a regular peeping tom.  
  
Lina nodded. "Of course, I'm sure! Something was moving from the trees!"  
  
No one noticed the man and the girl looking at the moon with brows furrowed, and stood in the shadows.  
  
"I'll prove it!" Lina said. "FREEZE ARROW!" The ice arrows shot into the bushes of trees.  
  
At first nothing moved. Until hell broke loose.  
  
It happened all of a sudden. Any other who was not convinced to get out of the springs was now when something crashed into the springs. Causing the hot water to splash in all directions. Screams broke out as the groups rushed towards the exit. Lina and the others narrowly jumped away from the actually impact.  
  
As the steam and water cleared, the group gasped at what they saw.  
  
"A-a werewolf?!" Amelia exclaimed.  
  
The hairy beast stood in the middle of the hole it caused in the middle of the spring, breathing in heavily. Saliva covering its mouth.  
  
"No," Lina said, "That's no ordinary werewolf. That's a Lycanthrope."  
  
"Give the girl," a deep, rumbling voice said, "a prize." It suddenly roared in laughter. "You humans look delicious. Who should I have for dinner first?"  
  
"I'd like to see you try!" Lina challenged. "We won't loose to a hairy ass like you!!"  
  
"Yeah! We won't let you do what you want! You unjust beast!!" Amelia shouted and raised her hands. "ELMEKIA LANCE!!!"  
  
The werewolf merely swipe the spell away and charged Amelia. In a blink of an eye, he was upon her, claws ready to gash her stomach.  
  
"AMELIA!!" Zelgadis shouted. "GOZO VROW!!!" The dark spell spread quickly, through Zelgadis' force. The spell reached its target, the Lycan, in a blink of an eye dodged the attack and was charging Zelgadis.  
  
It landed a brutal punch onto Zelgadis' stomach. He flew across the spring and into the gigantic rocks. If it were not for his chimeric form, every one of his bones would have shattered. As it is, his breath was only blown out of his lungs. Even so, he collapsed.  
  
"Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia shrieked and ran to Zelgadis' side.  
  
"Light Come Forth!" Gourry shouted from Lina's side.  
  
The Sword of Light glowing, Gourry charged the Lycan. With fangs and all, it only smirked and took Gourry's attack with one of its arm, the other one swiped Gourry away like a fly. He flew back and into the deep end of the springs.  
  
"Gourry!" Lina shouted and summoned a spell. "FIREBALL!" She hurled the spell towards the Lycan. It jumped into the air. Lina made a gesture towards the ball of fire making its way to the trees and shouted, "BREAK!" Obeying the sorceress, the Fireball broke into tiny fireballs. Faster and somewhat more effective, one hit the monster's tail, spreading quickly to its body.  
  
It howled in deep pain as it caught fire in the air. There was a sizzling noise as it hit the waters, smoke rising. A little tinged throughout its lower body, it howled again, this time in anger.  
  
"You'll pay DEARLY for that, you little bitch!!" it growled and charged the sorceress.  
  
Within a blink of an eye, literally, one moment he was a few ten feet away from Lina, the next, Lina saw him right in front of her, claws extended to swipe her neck.  
  
"Oh shit!" she cursed as she narrowly dodged the attack. Strands of red hair flew freely around.  
  
She ran backwards, having no time to turn around, she dodged each attack with narrowness.  
  
"RAY WING!" She flew up into the sky.  
  
"You can't run away from me!" it growled and jumped into the sky along with the sorceress. It threw, with full force, its claws at her.  
  
"VALIS WALL!" Lina cast a barrier in time to catch the attach. Although it didn't hit her directly, it did hit the barrier directly, making Lina fall back into the springs. She fell, unable to cast a Levitation spell in time, flat on her face, having all the air punched out of her lungs.  
  
"Lina!"  
"Ms. Lina!"  
  
Her friends shouted as Lina tried to stand up, wobbled and splashed back into the waters. She cough out water and gasped for air.  
  
Unfortunately, they didn't have time to group back together as the monster, too, fell back into the waters.  
  
With its pupil-less, dark eyes, it growled, "You're very good, sorceress." It spit the last word out like poison. "But not good enough. Although, I've enjoyed this...encounter, I must hurry." It raised its head slightly to look at the blue moon, dark clouds slowly moving over it.  
  
Lina stood up shakily. No way she was going to let this monster get the best of her.  
Her friends, she noticed, had edged their way towards her. Although, they weren't exactly clumped together, she could still rely on them for support...hopefully.  
  
"Hmph! All bark and no bite," she said, "no pun intended, of course." She give it an overconfident smirk.  
  
It made no replies. Then it suddenly moved. For an instant, Lina saw a smirk that gave her the a chill down her spines. For another instant, it rushed at her. It was a blur, a really fast blur. She didn't have time to react. She saw her friends running towards her, she saw the monster making its way towards her, hearing something like "I am no ordinary Lycan, sorceress" by her ear, she saw a man and a girl that stood silently in the shadows, then suddenly, she only saw darkness.  
  
"LINAAA!" was all she heard before everything turned to darkness.  
  
-----  
  
The Lycan pulled its bloody claws out of Lina's stomach. It licked off her blood as Lina fell back into the waters.  
  
"Virgin's blood," it commented. "Tasty." It grinned, its fangs bloody.  
  
Everyone gaped at the fallen sorceress, shocked and horrified at what had happened and what was happening in front of them.  
  
"LINAAA!" Gourry shouted. Swelling with anger, he rushed the monster, the Sword of Light glowed brightly in front of him.  
  
"Amelia!" Zelgadis shouted at the younger girl. "Help Lina! Do whatever you can to stop the blood first! I'll back up Gourry! HURRY!"  
  
Zelgadis, with sword drawn, went to Gourry's side.  
  
Amelia, with shaking legs, made her way towards Lina. Blood was gushing out of her small body. The young healer casted a healing spell. Concentrating hard, she took a look at Lina's face and regretted it. Her face was pale, deathly pale.  
  
"Ms. Lina! Ms. Lina! Please hang on! PLEASE!" Amelia begged the unconscious sorceress, tears threatening to flow down her face.  
  
"Amelia! Watch out!" Zelgadis' warning shot through the commotion.  
  
Amelia looked up and saw that the monster was making its way to finish its work. She refused to stop the healing spell to guard herself. She squeezed her eyes shut and prepared herself for the attack.  
  
A howl made her open her eyes again. The Lycan had burst into flames, blue flames, inches before it had reached her and Lina. Her eyes rolled over to Zelgadis and Gourry who was just as surprised as she was. Her eyes roamed around and found the man and woman disappearing into the shadows.  
  
"Amelia! Stay focus!" Zelgadis' voices snapped Amelia back to their present situation.  
  
Lina's wounds were closed but she was still deathly pale. Her blood had reddened the whole springs. Amelia paled, having no guts for these kinds of situation.  
  
Gourry, after knowing that Lina was safe to move around, put a protective arm around her and lifted her up.  
  
"We need to get out of here," he simply said and got out of what was left of the springs.  
  
Zelgadis followed and looked behind to see that Amelia hadn't done the same. She was staring at a corner.  
  
"Amelia?"  
  
Pale faced, Amelia turned to look at him. "Ms. Lina...she...she's...." Tears welled up.  
  
Zelgadis put an arm around her. "...Let's get out of here."  
  
-----  
  
Through the night, they all crowded around the bed the sorceress was resting on.  
  
Gourry sat closest to her, holding one of her cold hands, soberly looking at the sorceress.  
  
They noticed that her breath became shallower by the minute.  
  
Amelia, still pale from earlier events, sat on the other side with the chimera, standing over her. Looking at Lina, she felt faint.  
  
She stood up shakily, holding onto the chair for support and said, "I--I'll go get some wet towels..." She ran out of the room. Half way down the hall, she collapsed on her knees and sobbed into her hands.  
  
A firm hand pat her shoulder.  
  
"She's not going to make it, Mr. Zelgadis!" she sobbed.  
  
Zelgadis didn't say anything as he kneeled down. "It is...inevitable..."  
  
Amelia shook her head fiercly. "No! NO! It wasn't inevitable! She--she--it--" She cried harder, unable to continue.  
  
Zelgadis hugged the young girl tightly.  
  
"Lina..." Gourry called to the unconscious sorceress softly. "Lina...it'll be okay...you'll be okay..." He said, kissing the small, cold hands.  
  
"Please wake up..." he said through dried lips.  
  
As he looked at the pale face, out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a finger flicker. He gasped.  
  
"Lina! Lina?!" He said. Knocking the chair back, the swordsman stood up and rushed through the door. "Amelia! AMELIA!!!"  
  
The door creaked close, eerily if anyone had been there and noticed it. From the shadows of the dark room, two figures formed beside the sorceress. A man and a girl.  
  
"Awake," the girl said simply.  
  
In reponse, the sorceress' lids opened slowly.  
  
"Dying feels shitty..." she managed to say.  
  
"You will die," the girl said.  
  
Ruby-red eyes slid to the two people. She grunted and winced. "Tell me...something I...don't know..." She breathed heavily.  
  
"You will Turn into one of Them," the girl continued. "We can't allow that. We have to kill you before then. Do you want to die?"  
  
"...ha ha...don't say it so...calmly..." the sorceress complained. "You people think...I do...?"  
  
"If not, then you can come with us, become one of US," she said as she looked at her tall companion.  
  
"...and what are you...?" Lina managed to say. Her eyelids were suddenly heavy. She was so sleepy.  
  
"You don't have time for twenty-one questions, girl," the man grumbled with a deep voice.  
  
A hand rose from the girl, silencing her companion. "We...are one of the creatures of the Night. My companion is right, you do not have much time, do you or do you not wish to see another night?"  
  
Lina managed to pop open her lids. She was Lina Inverse! No way was she going to stop here!  
  
"...yes...yes, I wish to see another night..." she breathed out heavily. With that her eyes closed, unable to resist the sleep that crept over her.  
  
The girl nodded to her companion who produced a knife from his black coat. It was silver, embroidered with ruby on its hilt. He put it over the sorceress' heart and pushed it in. The ruby glowed and something seemed to drain from the jewel, making it look dull.  
  
Lina gasped as her eyes popped open. For an instant, her eyes glowed red.  
  
"By the power of our Lord, our true Lord, our only Dark Lord" the girl chanted, a small hand placed on Lina's forehead. "Let this sheep be lost into the depths of Darkness and be one of Us. Nema."  
  
With the last word, and a sudden whooshing sound, the two disappeared into the shadows.  
  
Lina's red eyes stopped its glow, became hallow, closed and she rested.  
  
Everything was as Gourry left it as the three came back into the room. Only to find that Lina Inverse, the Sorceress Supreme was no longer breathing.  
  
Two figures and a third shadow hovered around the dark sky, observing the commotion in the small room. With a snap from one of the figures, they disappeared.  
  
-----  
  
Author's notes: So yea, there ya go! Chapter 1! Wasn't much, was it! D; anywhos, i revised it again and again, not sure how to connect it to the second chapter! AGH! I dont even know where I'm going with this! Oh wells! I'll surprise y'all! :D BTW, did anybody noticed Nema was Amen backwards?! Hope it isn't blasphemous or anything, i just put it in, thought it was kool. Forgive me if i sinned! 


	3. Chapter 2

Slayers in the Night  
  
Chapter 2: Continuing In Death  
  
Ruby-red eyes cracked open to a dark, evenly squared room. A red-haired girl to whom the red eyes belong to let out a gasp, her heart ached, literally. She tried to sit up only to be stopped by a firm hand that held her in place, which was half up and half down. She took hold of the arm, it was clearly a man's arm. With her hold she was able to support herself in the half position she was in.  
  
"Gourry?" she whispered with a course voice. Her eyes, blurry and oddly unadjusted to the darkness in the room, scanned what she can hardly make out of her surrounding. There was another figure standing by, that much she can tell. "Zelgadis? Amelia?"  
  
When the arm did not let go of his hold, tiredness washed over her in a sudden rush and she laid back down on the soft mattress.  
  
She let out a sigh. "Who are you people? Where am I? Where is everybody? I didn't dream any of what happened, huh?"  
  
Out of the corner of her adjusting vision, she saw the arm withdraw. She lifted her hands in front of her face.  
  
I thought I was dead? She thought to herself.  
  
"You are," a melodious voice sounded through her head. "Or rather, I should say, you are undead."  
  
She put a hand on her face. "Great," she mumbled. "It wasn't a nightmare, afterall." She chuckled. "Me! Lina Inverse! An undead!" She burst out laughing. "Who woulda thought!" She laughed harder, noticing she isn't choking to get any air.  
  
"Why are you laughing?" a deep, male voice ask dryly.  
  
Lina continued to laugh. "I don't know! I don't KNOW! I can't stop!"  
  
The girl moved closer to the sorceress, cold hands caressing flaming red-hair. "It's okay, child. Stop."  
  
It wasn't exactly soothing to Lina's ears but she stopped laughing abruptly. She didn't understand how and why.  
  
"I'm dead! I'm DEAD! I'm an UNdead!" she shouted angrily. She sat up suddenly, ignoring the pain in her chest. Looking down at herself, she winced as she saw what she was wearing: a flowy white gown. It was plain but it wasn't her style. Whoever that dressed her, probably Amelia, should have known that much about her.  
  
She sighed as she thought about her friends. "So...I guess I'm really dead then, huh?"  
  
"You've said that about three times now," the man commented.  
  
Lina turned to glare at the man. "It's kinda hard to swallow, okay?! Geez, one moment I'm fighting a hairy bastard, the next I'm dead."  
  
"Undead," the girl corrected. "You are one of Us, an undead."  
  
Lina sighed. "I shoulda asked first, WHAT are you? No, no, don't tell me, a succubus? No? Medusa, naw, if you were then we would've turned to stone already. Faeries? But geez, no offense, but you guys are too dark to be Faeries. You're certainly NOT a Were of any kind! OR any sort of Lycanthropes. OH L-SAMA! Don't tell me you guys are--"  
  
"We," the girl said, cutting off Lina's rant. "We are vampires. One of the creatures of the Night."  
  
Lina sighed and grabbed her head. "I KNEW I should have ASKED before I signed onto Death's delay list! But geez, I didn't exactly have time! I was DYING, afterall! Ugh, I have a headache. This is happening way too fast, even for me!" Her head spun about. "I feel like a Gourry right now..."  
  
"That is because you have not fed yet," the girl said.  
  
Lina paled whiter than she was. "F-fed?"  
  
"Vampires feed, girl," the man said, matter-a-factly. "Had you not read any children's stories?"  
  
"Geez, you got an attitude, Mr. Know-it-All," Lina sneered.  
  
Lina swallowed and felt her throat dry. As if complaining, her stomach growled.  
  
The girl turned around and walked to a small table, coming back she held a glass of liquid.  
  
Lina saw the glass and swallowed harder, thirstier than ever. "Oh L-shama, ish that what I think it ish? Huh?" She felt her teeth and sure enough two sharp fangs protruded from her mouth. "Thish ish too weird!"  
  
"You will get used to that. Eventually, you will not lisp at all," the girl said.  
  
Lina sighed, trying to form a sentence without S's. "Who are you people? What ish your name?" Doh! An S.  
  
The girl smiled, as if amused. "My name is Lilith. This is my companion, Robbie."  
  
"Robert," he said firmly.  
  
"Lilith and Robert. Lilly and Robbie," Lina said to herself.  
  
"Lilith."  
  
"Robert." They both said simulteanuously.  
  
Lina ignored them. She turned her head to them and smiled. "That's like a sister-brother name. I'm Lina. Lina Inverse."  
  
"We know," Lilith replied with a small smirk. "Dragon Spooker, Bandit Killer, Enemy of All Who Live."  
  
Lina sweatdropped. "Ok, ok, you don't gotta squash my reputation in my face, yknow." She hmph'ed and crossed her arms.  
  
"She will cause problems in MidNighte, Lilith," Robert predicted.  
  
Lilith waved one of her delicate looking hands at his comment. "Do not worry yourself so, my dear Robert. She's but an infant vampire."  
  
"That is the problem, Lilith," he scowled. "We've a long way to MidNighte. How can we take care of this girl?"  
  
"Hey, this GIRL is in this room, yknow!" Lina said annoyingly. "And what's a midnight?"  
  
"MidNighte," Lilith replied, turning herself around to look at Lina, "is where our Lord resides. A land where our Kind, and nothing but our Kind, exist."  
  
"Lord huh? Who is this Lord exactly?" Lina asked.  
  
Lilith sighed. "You have many things to learn Lina. So much that I do not know where to begin."  
  
Lina sat up and dropped her legs off the bed, the white dress billowing down the edge of the bed as well. "Well, you can start by answering my questions."  
  
"That is true," Lilith said and nodded. She sat on a wooden chair across from Lina.  
  
Lina blinked as she finally studied the younger-looking girl in front of her. She looked young but somehow Lina knew she was not young, she FELT it.  
  
But she looked so delicate. As tall as Lina was with soft looking brown hair that fell to her back. Her skin looked pale, even in the dim room, and her eyes were red, solid red.  
  
"What do you want to know?" Lilith's soft voice brought Lina back to the present.  
  
Lina shrugged. "Anything."  
  
Robert grunted. He was leaning on the wall next to the door, arms crossed over his chest. "Kind of vague, don't you think?"  
  
Lina shot an annoying look at his direction, then looked back to Lilith, figuring it was best to ignore him.  
  
"What were you guys doing at Margouse? Y'know, before the...incident happened," Lina asked, not sure where to start. She thought she'd start off easy then go from there.  
  
"It is fairly insignificant," Lilith replied, turning to her head to look at the crescent of moon glowing from the black clouds. "We needed to stop for...a few accommodations in the village."  
  
"Oh," was all Lina said. Then, "So um...do you guys...accommodate often?"  
  
Lilith turned back to look at Lina. "Let us be blunt and not beat around the bush, yes?" She let out a small laugh. "We feed when we must. Robert and I are fairly old and can hold our thirst when neccessary. You, a newly Turned, however, is a different story. Which reminds me, Lina, you have yet to feed."  
  
With that, Lina shuddered violently as Lilith pushed the same glass of liquid into her face. Lina pushed the glass away, almost spilling the liquid.  
  
"NO! Eww! Keep that thing away from me!" She shouted, ignoring her growing thirst.  
  
"You must feed, Lina," Lilith said. "If you continue to refuse it, the consequences are...inevitable."  
  
Lina blinked. "What does that mean?"  
  
"It means something you do not want to know," Lilith replied. Holding the glass in front of Lina's face, she said, "Drink. Now."  
  
Lina automatically lifted her hands to the glass, unable to stop herself.  
  
No! No! NO! Her mind screamed as she lifted the glass to her lips. The liquid, although cold, seemed warm against Lina's undead lips. Disgusting as it is, her thirst was gone by the time she finished every last drop of the liquid.  
  
Abruptly, she shoved the empty glass back to Lilith. "Ew! I can't believe I jusht did that! And ENJOYED it!"  
  
Lilith took the glass back and gave Lina a curious look. "You should have enjoyed it. You are a vampire, afterall. Do not deny your thirst, Lina. It is a part of you now. Something you do not want to turn ravage."  
  
"We need to let her feed on her own," Robert said coldly. "We cannot treat her like an infant forever."  
  
Lilith nodded. "Yes, that is true." She studied the undead sorceress, who refused to look at either of them. "What is wrong, Lina?"  
  
Lina sighed. "Nothing. Everything." She shook her head as if to clear her mind, but it was still foggy. She brought her knees to her chin, which gave her a chance to feel if her fangs retracted, it did. "I was always in control of my life, my own being. Now look at me..." Lina buried her pale face into her knees.  
  
"Nothing is wrong with you, Lina," Lilith said. "You are unable to control yourself now because you are a newborn. You will learn as you grow older."  
  
"Whatever..." Lina mumbled. She suddenly lifted her face up to look at Lilith. "Hey, so, are you umm...my master and all now? I mean, weren't you the one who...er....made me and all?"  
  
Lilith gave her a small laugh. "We did Turn you, however, we are not your masters. It is old wives' tales."  
  
"Oh," Lina said, somewhat relieved. "So how did you make me drink when I didn't want to?"  
  
"Well, Lina, you must understand that we are older than you," Lilith said with a smile. "With age brings power. You will be able to refuse what we tell you to do when you are, as you say, in control of your own being."  
  
"So umm...how old are you guys?" Lina asked, somewhat curious. She would never believe they were undead just by looking at them, not Lilith anyway.  
  
Lilith giggled. "Why Lina, thank you."  
  
Lina blinked. "What? Oh, you guys can read minds huh?"  
  
"Not exactly," Lilith replied with amusement in her eyes. "Your thoughts are practically leaking out on thier own. You must learn how to shield it better, Lina."  
  
"Ugh! From what your always telling me to learn, I'm gonna have to take Vampire 101 every night or something!" Lina whined.  
  
"Oh, not to worry, Lina," the female vampire said lightly. "We have plenty of time to teach you what you need to learn. We are somewhat a long way from MidNighte."  
  
"So what exactly do you need to do at this midnight place," Lina asked, stretching out her short legs.  
  
"We pay homage to our Lord," Lilith replied and looked out the window. "We must make our way to celebrate his one hundredth anniversary as the Vampire Lord."  
  
"Oh-kay..." Lina said distantly. In all her living years, she had survived with Naga, through the Shabrinigdo incident, through the Koppi Rezo incident, through Gaav, Hellmaster, Valgaav, Dark Star, and L-sama knows all kinds of weird life threatening situations and THIS was not in one of any other possibilities in her mental list. She sighed.  
  
Lilith made her way to the window and drew the curtains, which were much thicker and darker than the regular white flimsy ones that usually decorate the inn's rooms.  
  
"What are ya doing?" Lina asked.  
  
"The sun is rising," the older vampire replied.  
  
"Oh."  
  
Lilith turned to her with a serious look on her face. "This is not old wives' tale, Lina. The sun is very much our enemy. Avoid the sun at all costs. "  
  
"So we do burst into flames, huh?" Lina asked and without waiting for an answer she continued. "So what about Weres and Lycans. It's not like I studied majorly on things that go bump in the night, if ya know what I mean."  
  
Robert grunted in disgust. "What about Them?"  
  
"Well, what's their deal? What's their weak points, strong points, etc?" Lina asked, annoyed.  
  
"I think you need to learn about Ourselves before caring about anything else," he replied, glaring at Lina.  
  
"Robert." Lilith gave him a look that Lina had not known how to take. She did not show anger nor annoyance. Her voice was ever so soft, but the male vampire looked away and said no more. Lina looked at this in curiosity but held her tongue as Lilith turned to look at her.  
  
"You will know about Them, Lina," she said. "However, I agree with Robert that you must know about Us first before focusing on Them. Do not worry, it is not at all complicated. Everything is mainly innate. As long as you are aware of them, you will know the abilities that you hold." She gave Lina an assuring smiled.  
  
"Okay..."  
  
Lilith straightened herself. If she had lived, she looked as if she had taken a quick breath.  
  
"Sunlight," she said, "will certainly harm Us, if not kill Us, depends on who you are referring to and the situation in which they are in. A stake to the heart and decapitation, however, is permenant to any of Us. Holy water and crosses will harm Us, but you eventually build a tolerance to it." Without really paying attention to anything else, she sat down on the same chair she had occuppied before drawing the curtains.  
  
"If you are harmed in any way, the exceptions of stakes and decapitations, you can heal yourself by drinking blood." Lina shuddered at that.  
  
"That is the basics about Us," Lilith said, "Weres and Lycans are mostly the same, as far as weak points and strong points go."  
  
"It's not like Werewolves and Lycanthropes are much different to begin with," Robert said, not looking at any of the two. "Lycans are just stronger, faster, and hairier than Weres."  
  
Lina stifled a snicker. She didn't really like this guy enough to openly enjoy his would-be joke.  
  
Lilith, unlike Lina, openly smiled. "That is true."  
  
"Sunlight has no affect on Them," he continued. "But They are unable to Turn in daylight. Once every month, They are able to draw power and strength from the blue moon." He crossed his arms across his chest and went on. "Silver is a different story. They are highly allergic to it. Something in their blood that gets passed into others they Make. However, some of the stronger, older ones develop an entire tolerance towards it.  
  
"Oh...I see."  
  
"Nicely explained, Robert," Lilith commented with a smile. "I couldn't have done it better myself."  
  
Robert snorted and continued to not look at her.  
  
"So what else?" Lina asked, curiously.  
  
"Now, you must sleep," Lilith replied simply.  
  
Lina blinked. "What? But I'm not sle--" She fell back on the pillow.  
  
Lilith gave a small laugh as she saw the newly Turned vampire flop onto the bed suddenly. "It's been a long time since I've seen that."  
  
"It should have been. Ever since me," Robert said. He finally turned to look at the female vampire. "Why did you Turn her? This will waste our time, you do know that, don't you?"  
  
The smile disappeared from Lilith's pale face as she seemed to go into thought. "I just thought it was a waste to just let her die." She turned her young looking face to Robert. "She seems to have a lot of potential." Her thin lips curved into a smile.  
  
"Potential for trouble," he mumbled.  
  
Lilith laughed. "Yes, that too." A glint of amusement flickered from her red eyes as she looked at the newly undead. "Interesting, indeed."  
  
"Yea...right," was all Robert could say as they could 'feel' the sun rising.  
  
------  
  
Author's notes: Ok! Chapter 2 up! not much goin' on i guess, just some general info on my "vampires". I get bits and pieces from everything i know and read, so yknow...yea, so this story, i warn beforehand, will not be complicated, obviously. It will have a basic storyline. 


	4. Chapter 3

Slayers in the Night 

Chapter 3: Dawn of the Dead Sorceress

-----

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer, you take one down, pass it around--

"Will you shut up?!" a voice boomed from the corners of finely decorated room. A pale face with red eyes and silver hair emerged from the shadows.

"WHAT are you doing?!" Robert asked, smoke practically rising from his ears.

"I'm not doing anything," the red-haired sorceress said as innocently as she can manage. "Just thinking."

"Well, think to YOURSELF!" he hissed as his brows knitted in annoyance.

"Geez, you need to cool yourself down, Robbie," Lina said, twiddling with the light blanket on her. It wasn't as though she needed it to keep her warm, her body temperature was already ice cold, but it was a habit and she didn't exactly know how to blend into the shadows yet.

'Robbie's' eyes twitched. "For the last time, it's ROBERT!"

"You really do need to calm yourself down, my dear Robert," a soft, feminine voice sounded from the same corner. Another face with red eyes emerged from the shadows next to Robert, however, this one had long brown hair. She turned to look at Lina. "And you need to rest."

"So do WE!" Robert exclaimed. "When will you teach her how to shield her thoughts, Lilith?! That's the most important thing right now or else we'll never be able to rest!"

Lilith sighed. For the past week, they had continued to make their way to MidNighte. Along the way, Lina tried to learn their ways but it was hard to let go of her human nature and inhabit another right away. In other words, it was hard as hell to make Lina Inverse become a real vampire. Lilith glanced at the thick, dark curtains and sighed again.

"Lina, dear," she started, "you really need to start becoming used to your skills. If you do not make them become a part of you, you will not survive in Our world." She made her way to Lina's side and put a cold, comforting hand on her shoulders. "We will not be able to feed you a glass of blood every night, Lina."

Lina shuddered at that. She was getting used to drinking "dead blood", her vampire companions called it, but they both insisted that she needed more nourishment from "living blood." Although, contrary to the myths and folklores, they did not have to drain their victims, Lina was still hesitant to do any such thing.

"Nor will we always have an inn to accommodate us," Lilith continued. "You must learn your new Being, Lina, then nothing will be able to control you, you will be your own Self. I know you can do that, Lina, you have potentials, you're merely holding yourself back."

It was Lina's turn to sigh, or tried to, having no need to breath anymore. She did not know how to reply. For some reason, she did not want to disappoint Lilith. She gave her a great respect she could not explain why or where it came from. But seeing the older vampire's cool and calm persona makes Lina want to be like that too. Lina wondered if that was how Amelia felt while they were traveling together. She lowered her ruby-red eyes, not being able to look at the solid red ones.

Robert made a disgusting noise breaking the awkward silence. "Why weren't you that nice to ME?"

Lilith turned her head and smiled at him. "Let's just say I learned from my mistakes."

"You didn't call me that during the battles," he grunted in return. "You're too soft on her, Lilith. With the way you're going with her, she will not learn anything for self-defense."

"That is why you are in charge of her offensive abilities," Lilith said, the same smile plastered on her face.

He smirked. "You think it wise to leave it up to me?"

Lina looked from one to the other, for once having nothing to say.

"Like you said, she will not learn anything from me that Others will not have surpassed," she replied. "Besides, you know that I'm much better in defensive abilities." She thin lips curved into a cocky smile, which, in Lina's opinion, did not look like it should be on that innocent looking face.

Robert nodded in agreement. "Given the past circumstances, it isn't exactly surprising, Lilith."

"Huh? What are you guys talking about?" Lina asked.

There was a silence that went around the two older vampires.

"Oh, ancient history, my dear," Lilith replied, slowly. "Nothing to worry yourself about."

"Yes, you should be worrying about yerself, girl," Robert said, giving Lina a look of annoyance. "Go to sleep and don't THINK!" He smirked. "You'll be needing it for your first lesson with me."

Lina sweatdropped. Although he looked down on her, she knew he was much more powerful and much, much older than she was. "Uh...don't I get a say in this?"

Lilith gave her a small laugh. "Not yet, dear. However, I will give you your first lesson. Close your eyes."

Lina did as she was told. At the moment, she was not yet powerful enough to resist their direct orders.

"Imagine a spell that guards you against any magical or physical attacks, perhaps the one you used against the Ly," Lilith instructed.

Valis Wall, Lina thought. A white magic spell which creates a defensive shield.

"Yes, very good," Lilith continued. "Now think of that shield blocking your thoughts. An invisible wall that guards your mind."

Invisible wall guarding my thoughts, Lina thought. Like a fence around a house, a moat around a castle. There! My guards are up!

She heard a giggling from the older vampire. "Not exactly, but you get the idea. You will get used to it. With practice, it will become innate and you will not have to think to guard your thoughts."

"I will get what hours are leftover of the day," Robert said grudgingly from a corner, half his body already blending in with the shadows. He gave Lina a glare. "And keep practicing at it, girl! It's annoying!" His head disappeared into the wall.

Lina hmph'ed and crossed her arms. "Give me some credit! I'm still new at it!"

"Then prepare yourself for tonight's first lesson!" a growl came out from the corner.

She stuck her tongue out to the shadows and turned to Lilith. "I don't think he likes me much."

Lilith smiled and shook her head. "He is just a very grumpy vampire. Do not mind him. He's always been like that, even when he was human."

Lina laid back down onto the bed and looked at Lilith. "So you guys knew each other before you guys were vampires?"

The smile left Lilith's face as she seemed to went into thought. "Yes...we...at the time, we had become acquainted very fast." She turned her head back to Lina and a small smile came back onto the pale face. "Situations forced us to survive with each other."

"Oh..." Lina said. "Okay, well, I'll try to work on your first lesson. It's just...very hard to adjust to everything so suddenly."

"I know, dear, I understand," Lilith said. "However, like Robert said, you need to quickly adjust to your new Being or else the many Others will get a chance to take an advantage of you."

"Others like other vampires, you mean?" Lina asked.

"Others as in everything, Lina. You do not understand that we are but one of the many creatures that share the Night," Lilith said and clasped her hands behind her back. "There are many Others that do not wish to share. The Lycans, for example. And Hunters, as well, whom do not wish to share the Night nor the Day."

"Hunters?" Lina repeated. "You guys never told me that before."

Lilith nodded. "We have not told you much of anything, Lina. We'll have to start with your abilities first. If anything should come to pass, you will know about it." She smiled and began to blend with the shadows. "Get some rest, dear. As Robert promised, you will need it for tonight." With that, she completely embraced the shadows and disappeared from Lina's sight.

Lina sighed but only got annoyed that she could not. She wondered how her other two companions managed the trick. She twiddled with her fingers. A week ago, the moment the sun rose, she would instantly fall asleep, now she was an insomniac vampire.

She thought back to her friends and found that she missed them miserably. Lilith and Robert told her it was best she remained dead in their minds. They were different creatures now, mysterious creatures, something that more than half the world's population believes to be a myth, just a scary story to tell in the dark.

Two nights after she was properly introduced to Lilith and Robert, and her new being, she begged and begged to just see how her friends were before departing for MidNighte. Amelia distracted herself with her royal duties, losing most of her perkiness as the usual young cheerful princess Lina used to know. Right after the funeral, Zelgadis left to search for his cure. Gourry stayed with the princess longer, trying to give her the comfort as an old friend, but after finding that Amelia was so busy with her position, he left to return to his homeland.

She rolled over on her side to face the window. The curtain covering the window was so thick not even one speck of ray can shine through.

So what did I do all this for? Lina thought to herself, she caught herself and tried to shield her mind. Why am I still here for?

Finding that she was getting more and more depressed, Lina threw the covers over her head and curled up in a ball, desparately trying to rest.

I'm Lina Inverse! I won't let Death get the best of me!

-----

Five hours, two minutes, and thirteen seconds later...

"How did you even survive so long as a HUMAN?!" Robert yelled about ten feet away from Lina.

Lina, bloody and heavily panting, lay silently on the sandy shore.

The minute the last of the sun's ray disappeared, Lilith and Robert took her to an abandoned beach. Lilith watched as Robert tried to teach Lina of battle tactics, which, in Lina's opinion, consisted of nothing but heavy vampirical abuse.

The first thing Robert tried to teach her was how to blend in with the shadows. A very handy and common ability among Vampires. Then how to use her new speed and stronger strength in combat. In the end, the two got so annoyed at each other that they ended up on a one-on-one fight, of course, Robert, older and more experienced, got the best of newborn Lina.

"Going head to head with a Lycan, you need to be part of the Shadows," he explained. "You must understand that they have unnatural strength compared to Us. I wouldn't worry too much about the Weres, they are but pups compared to Us, even for you."

He gave Lina a critical look. "Besides that, it is embarassing that a newborn that derived from Lilith and I would not know how to control the Shadows nor draw out her speed and strength. I don't know how to make it any easier for you, girl. As I've said, the Shadows are all around us, become the Shadows, and you are free to move wherever it may reside. Your strength is inside you, draw it out, your speed is innate, use it as though you would as a human!" Robert huff and puff and blew all his undead air out. If he were alive, his face would have been redden with anger and annoyance.

Lina stood up shakingly. "You didn't have to beat me half to death, demonstrating it to me, yknow." She wiped the blood off her mouth and ignored the growing thirst in her throat.

Robert grunted in reply. "I've found that beating you half to death is the only way to make you learn any faster!"

Lina turned to look at the female vampire perched on the remains of a sail boat. "Is this how you taught him? How'd he become such a psychopath?"

"This PSYCHOPATH is not nearly done with you, girl!" He spit out the sentence.

Lilith giggled. "Perhaps worst. You should know that I have not always been this patient."

"That's a big understatement," Robert snorted and folded his arms across his broad chest.

Ignoring him, Lilith went on, "It also has something to do with the person's own strength and susceptibility to acquire more knowledge. Robert was strong even as a newborn. It is uncommon but not rare. You can say he was Made with innate strength and abilities to begin with. Throughout the years, you will become more and more strong, even without trying." She tilt her head back, as if in thought.

Lilith hmm'ed and said, "Fear would probably be what you feel if you meet any Others as old as Robert and I. Don't worry about it, I'm sure you'll get over it quickly." She smiled confidently at Lina.

Robert pshaw'ed and said, "You give her too much credit. She's only a week old."

"Yes, well, I believe in her," Lilith said and was suddenly next to Robert.

Lina blinked. She didn't see Lilith emerge with the Shadows. "What did you..."

"Oh," she said, "that's just speed, dear. Don't worry, you'll learn have that too in time. But I guess practice is the key here..."

Lilith looked Lina over and hmm'ed. The damages Robert inflicted on her was minimal and they were already closing, due to her vampirical healing abilities. She looked at Lina's tattered white pajamas she still wore. "Your wounds are closed, it wasn't too bad. But your clothes is a different matter." Lilith gave Robert an annoyed glare. "You didn't have to go and ruin the only sets of clothes we had for her, Robbie."

Robert looked away and ignored her.

Lilith looked back at Lina. "Well, you two have been plenty offensive for tonight. Let's take down more defensive ability, shall we?"

Lina groaned. "What are we gonna do now? I still haven't exactly managed the first one you taught me, yknow."

"Actually, I think you're handling your shield pretty well, considering you only learned it about five hours ago," Lilith commented and turned around, walking away from the shores. "Let us show you how to feed."

"What?! No way!" Lina almost tripped on her own feet. "I'm not doing that!"

"How else do you think you will stay alive, girl?!" Robert growled, looking back annoyingly at her.

Lilith too, with an emotionless expression on her face. "Come, Lina. You must feed. As it is, you lost a good deal of blood. I can feel your thirst."

Unable to deny the old Vampire's orders, Lina followed. The three continued their way out of the abandoned village.

"It is not as bad as you might think, Lina," Lilith said. "As I've mentioned before, we do not need to drain humans dry in order to fully recover. Although, do not be surprised that some of Us do that, just because they can."

"But do I HAVE to?" Lina whined.

Lilith nodded. "You must, Lina. You do not yet realize how important it is to make yourself feed on living blood. It is your very existence, Lina."

Following behind her, Lina had nothing else to rebuke. The three walked on in silence.

-----

"This is a good place," Lilith said, pointing at an inn/lounge within a small "pit stop" village for travelers.

So late in the night, the lounge was raudy and filled with drunkards.

"MUST you always choose such places to find prey, Lilith?" Robert complained, brushing back his silver hair.

"It is a perfect place, Robert," she replied, casually avoiding customers exited the lounge.

"Their blood rots of such cheap liquor," he growled.

"Well, for tonight, they are easier prey," Lilith said and did not wait for another reply.

She walked up the steps and pushed through the doors. The crowd was oblivious of the three newcomers, they went on with their merry drunken lives as the three sat at the table in the middle of the crowd. A voluptuous woman of red hair and face full of powder and lip stick walked towards the three, hips swaying suggestively. She made her way towards them and stopped directly at Robert's side, leaning against the wooden table, completely ignoring the other two.

"Hey there, big guy," she purred. "What can I get for ya?"

"Fine wine would be asking too much of a place like this," Robert snorted.

The woman giggled, intentionally bouncing her big chest up and down. "I got anything ya want, big boy."

"Anything with grape is fine with him, miss," Lilith said, smiling.

The woman stopped giggling and turned to look at Lilith, as if seeing her for the first time. She then turned to look at Lina, her face filled with annoyance.

"This isn't a place for little girls like yourselves, huns," the woman said.

"Yes, well, I've got my guardian right here, big and strong," Lilith replied and placed a hand on Robert's arm. "By the way, I believe your other customers are calling for your service, miss. Perhaps you should do your job and serve them." With that, Lilith smiled the most innocent smile Lina had ever seen on anybody.

The woman, probably screaming in her own heading, hissed and turned away sharply on her heels and marched to where a tubby man waved a lazy hand over by the bar.

Lina openly laughed. "That was great, Lilith!"

Lilith giggled childishly. "Whoopsey, did I make her angry? I hadn't meant it. Just wanted to be a helpful customer is all."

Robert snorted the childish acts before him. "Foolish. You are straying from our purpose, Lilith."

Lilith pouted cutely. "You just have no sense of humor, my dear Robert."

She cleared her throat and looked around the raudy crowd. "In any case, let me teach you something before attending to our next lesson. I want to show you how to read minds, human minds, to be exact."

Lina leaned in with interest. "Now this is something much more interesting than physical abuse."

"Well, THIS, won't save you from any battles," Robert informed.

Lilith ignored his comment and continued, "Reach out with your own mind, Lina. Think of an invisible hand linking your mind to theirs. Human minds are unprotected, Lina. It is very easy to find out what they are thinking."

She nodded towards the woman that just left their table. "Try and focus on her. Find out what she is thinking."

Lina looked towards the red-head, now flirting with another patron, her hips leaning on the table. Lina closed her eyes and imagined an invisible hand, a link between her mind and the woman's.

"Read it like an open book," Lilith's voice floated about.

Like an open book, Lina thought.

--stupid kid-- Lina heard.

--I could've landed him if it weren't for her-- The next thought came pouring in.

--Now I gotta settle for THIS half pint-- And she cut the link, laughing.

"Wow! That was easy!" Lina said, somewhat proud that she managed it so quickly.

Lilith smiled encouraged. "Yes, that was good, Lina."

"Humans' minds are easy read, they are unguarded, unlike Others," Robert commented. "Don't get too cocky. Mind reading isn't going to save your life when it comes to fighting Hunters or Lycans."

Lina frowned. Just like him to bring down her moment of shine. "Are you EVER satisfied with anything?"

"When it comes to you, not really," he snorted in disgust.

Lina slammed her hands on the table, cracking it. "WHAT is your problem?!"

Robert stood up abruptly. "That would be YOU that's my problem, girl! You were a human! Arrogant, flawed! I don't know what Lilith was thinking Making you one of Us!" With that outburst, he waited for no replies and stomped out of the lounge, bursting through the door.

"What's your problem?!" Lina shouted after him.

Lilith placed a hand on Lina's arm. "Lina, clam down. It's alright. Do not mind him, dear. He is just upset that I would involve another within our bond." She stood up and sighed, or made the gesture of sighing. "I will be right back. We must talk. In the mean time, try to entertain yourself." Lilith swiftly made her way towards the exit and pushed herself through the doors.

Lina slumped on the table and groaned.

"Greeat...I just got ditched and I don't even know my way back...life of the undead is just perfect..." she mumbled into her arms.

"Heeey, cutey." Lina looked up at three drunks.

"Ugh! This isn't something I need right now," she said to no one in particular.

"Heh heh...Ah'll give ya somethin' ya need, cutey," the first drunk slurred and put an arm around her shoulders. The other two laughed to nothing funny at all.

Lina started to giggle maniacally to under her breath. "I don't need vampire skills to beat the living shit out of you guys."

"Eh...whadda said, hun," the drunk slurred.

Lina stood up. "If you follow me, I'll show you what I said." She made her way towards the door, the three drunks staggering behind.

-----

"Robert, stop," Lilith ordered as they re-emerged from the shadows. "Please, stop. What's wrong? Why can you not accept her like I did?"

"Why should I?!" he shouted, his back turned to her. "She was just a human! Just a human that happened to be in the cross fire at that hot spring! I don't understand WHY you had to give her a choice to become one of Us!"

Lilith's eyes softened as she made her way towards her companion. "It was a feeling, Robert. A good one about her that I cannot throw away."

Robert growled at that reply. "That is not an answer, Lilith! A foolish feeling, no doubt! To have mercy on such a human!"

"Do you not trust me anymore, Robert?" Lilith asked softly.

He whipped around facing the female vampire and halted as he saw a look of hurt in her eyes. He looked away, feeling ashamed.

"I had a feeling about you too, Robert, a good one. Not one day goes by do I ever regret having taken the chance to act upon the feeling I had," she said softly into the night.

"That--at the time, it was different, there weren't many for you to choose from, Lilith," he said just as softly.

She shook her head slightly. "That's not true and you know it."

Robert straightened and looked at Lilith. "I'm sorry, Lilith, for the outburst, it was unlike me."

"Yes, that was very out of character, Robert," she said, nodding in agreement. "But I have no choice but to forgive you." She smiled.

Robert grunted. "But I'll still tell you this: I have doubts about that girl. She doesn't seem like she has any great potentials like you say. In fact, she refuses her new Being."

Lilith nodded again. "Yes, that is true and I do not blame you for your doubts, Robert. She seems to be holding on a bit too much to her humanity, it seems."

"It is good in a way but very limiting, you should know that," he informed.

"Yes, I should..." She said and looked up at the starry night. Soon the sun will rise again.

"By the way, not that I care, but where is the said vampire?" Robert asked. "I don't sense her at the lounge anymore."

"Don't worry, I sent a familiar after her, she should be okay," she said.

Robert shrugged. "And if not, she should find out the hard way that life of an undead isn't always easy like you make it for her."

Lilith laughed softly. "That is true."

Robert gave her a sidelong glance. "So we're okay?"

She gave him a genuine smile, a smile only for him. "Always."

-----

"There! That should teach you assholes to mess with a cranky undead sorceress this late in the night!" Lina snorted and brushed back her hair.

The three drunkards lay in a heap of blood and defeat. Just like Robert said, it stank of cheap alcohol. Very distasteful even though her throat was dry. She tried to quench it by drinking water from the lake but it did not help. Lina tried to drink their blood but found that she couldn't, it stank too horribly and she just couldn't do it, plain and simple. Drinking blood was still so disgusting to Lina.

"I'm gettin' outta here."

Making her way back to the small tavern, she knew in her mind that Robert and Lilith would not like her actions of not drinking the "living blood" tonight, but there were other nights, and she knew for a fact that there were still "dead blood" at the inn. Disgusting or not, she needed to survive.

Lina walked swiftly through the woods, trying out her new speed. She didn't noticed at the time that she had come this deep into the forest. Something caught her attention and she stopped abruptly. Lina sniffed, she smelled something, something sweet. She followed the scent. It made her more thirsty, her throat more dry, she sped up. She stopped as she came to a pond, a clearing of some sort where animals probably pause to take a drink. There she saw the source of the deliciously sweet scent.

It was blood. Blood from an unconscious man propped up against a tree trunk. It was trickling down his head. Unable, or unwilling, to stop herself, Lina made her way towards the man and knelt down in front of him. He didn't stir.

Sweet, sweet smell. Like nectar. Like honey caressing her nostrils. Like untainted blood... She found that she wanted a taste of it very badly. She couldn't stop herself, not like how she could have with those three other men.

Unknowing to herself, her pupils slitted as her fangs protruded from her mouth.

She leaned down, putting her face close to the blood. Her elongated tongue closed the small distance as she licked the blood off the man's cheek.

Lina suddenly felt a sharp burning pain on her heart, bringing her back to reality. She shrieked and jumped back. Her eyes turned back to their regular ruby-red, her fangs disappeared, her tongue was normal again.

"What the hell?!" she shouted. There was a shape of a cross burnt through her white pajama top, her skin sizzled. She looked at the man, now conscious and standing with a cross in front of him, warding her away like the monster that she is.

Her eyes narrowed as she studied the man. He was a priest, albeit a young one. He wore a white over coat with golden sewed on the seams. He had short, light blonde hair, so light that one could mistaken it for white. His eyes were green, moss green, clear and bright. In Lina's opinion, the man did not look older than his early twentied. The cross he was using was half the size of his hands, tied to a golden chain around his neck. Although a small trinket, it worked like a charm on Lina, turning her stomach inside out just by looking at it.

She snorted in disgust, more of herself than anything else. How could she have let herself do that?

"Great," she mumbled, "the one time I actually got the guts to feed is the one time I munch on a holy guy."

Lina made a gesture like she was sighing and brushed her red hair away from her face. "Uh, look...Father, I didn't mean to do that, it's not like I had a good taste of it anyway, how about letting it slide just this once, eh? I mean, I swear I couldn't control myself, I usually can, that was very unlike me."

His green eyes narrowed. "Go back to Hell from whence you came, damned creature." He took a step toward Lina, holding the cross higher.

Lina winced and backed away. "Hey, stop that! Okay, maybe I deserved that much, having licked blood off you..." She looked up in thought. "It was very good, by the way, unlike those drunks, compliments to your heart, Father." She giggled at her own joke.

The priest grunted in disgust. "You creatures are disgusting! I, Father Marcus of Saint Vinaceli, shall punish you according to the Lord's will!"

Lina winced again, taking another step back. She wasn't familiar enough with her abilities to fight in this battle. The priest seems to know what he was doing. She turned her body half way, ready to sprint back towards the tavern.

"Don't even think of escaping now, vampire!" He spitted the last word out with venom. "Luka! Mirna!"

"Oh, what NOW?!" Lina shouted as arrows blurred pass her. She dodged them fairly well, considering she had only trained for one night. They weren't shot in slow motion, even with Lina's unnatural eyesight, but they were slow enough to dodge with some effort. But there were too many shooting out from all directions. Lina stumbled about, trying to move quickly enough from one side to another.

A pain shot through her right arm and Lina howled. She looked down to find that an arrow made its way through her arm, blood trickled down the wound. She snarled and dodge more arrows. Another shot made it through her left shoulder. As these two arrows made her slow down massively, one by one, more arrows made its way through her body. Lina felt every drop of blood drained from her wounds. Her head spun. She shook her head, trying to clear it out and found that the arrows stopped flying about. Lina blinked hard, trying to clear her blurry eye sight, focusing hard on the priest. She tried to identify the two new figures which now stood on each side of him but couldn't.

"This is so bogus...this...wasn't what I wanted..." was the last thing Lina managed to say.

Lina hadn't noticed that she was on her knees until she felt her hand on the ground. Her blood were still draining from her body and she saw every drop of it on the dirted floor before darkness took her mind completely.

-----

Marcus sighed and looked at the two beside him. "Go."

They nodded and went to the fallen vampire.

"She's still a newborn, Father," a feminine voice called out.

"No wonder it was so easy to capture her," a male voice commented.

"Yes, I realized that," Marcus said. "That's why she was so easily drawn by the scent of my blood. Any older vampires would have known it was atrap."

Marcus went to the vampire and looked at her pale face. The multiple arrows still protruding from her body was draining the blood out of her but it won't kill her, that much he knew. The only way to kill a vampire was to stake it through the heart or slice their heads off. This was only a minor set back even for a newborn vampire like her.

"Bring her back with us," he ordered the two. "I want to know of the Others she may have been in contact with."

The two nodded obediently and proceeded to lift the red-haired vampire up.

Marcus turned his back on them and started to walk into the forest.

The three hadn't noticed a dark crow perched atop a low branch, observing with its beady eyes the events that just took place.

-----

Author's note: One thing I'd like to mention is the spell Valis Wall. I looked it up and it turns out that it only gaurds against fire attacks (fire spells, dragon breath, and normal fire) not any physical attacks, I was thinking of the spell Defense for that (info. courtesy of ). Yea, I made a big ass boo-boo. Sorry people! please disregard it! Any spells used will be looked up from now on! I swear!!! D;

So yea! This is the third chapter! I hope I didn't cram too much info in here! D; I just wanted to finally introduced other characters thats non-vampire. :D


	5. Chapter 4

Slayers in the Night

Chapter 4: Others of the Night

Some forewarning required: I think Lina is sorta OOC in this chapter. Sowwie!

-----

...Miss Lina, I hope you're having fun up there...

...Lina, you better wait for all of us there...

...I miss you, Lina...

Lina's eyes shot open as a burning pain shot through her arm.

"Owww!" she complained. "Will you people stop hurting me already?!" She blinked her eyes rapidly to adjust to the candle light glowing in various places.

Lina tried to test her hurting arm. Clink, clink, clink.

"Huh?" She looked at her arms, eyes finally adjusting to being used again. She was chained down. Her arms were chained to pillars, each standing on either side of her. She was so stretched out that she nearly had to tip toe to avoid her arms being pulled out of their sockets. But at least all the arrows were pulled out of her body and the wounds were already closing up.

Lina looked at the priest in front of her, who was holding an bloody arrow. "This isn't so merciful, Father." She said the last word mockingly.

"This is plenty merciful," he replied, tossing the arrow away. "Be grateful I did not stake you when I could have."

Lina rolled her eyes. "Please! You probably kept me alive to question me. Very selfish of a priest, might I add, to think of your own personal benefits. Well, anyway, forget it, buddy, cause I got nothing to say to you."

Marcus narrowed his eyes and took a step toward her.

"Father Marcus, we should not waste time on trash like her," a voice said.

Lina turned to see a young woman with short curly hair and blue eyes, armed with a bow and arrows at her side.

"Where's the other one?" Lina asked, looking around.

"Right here." A young man stepped out from the shadows beside the girl. He was a head taller than the woman, with short brown hair and matching blue eyes.

Lina grunted. "Let me guess, your parents were killed by vampires so you swear vengences on all of Us and sided with this priest. This is too cliched, yknow."

The two narrowed their eyes at her.

Lina rolled her eyes. "I didn't become a vampire to meet the likes of you two." She turned her red eyes towards the priest. "What's your story, priest man? Grew up in a holy place and tried to rid the world of its nightly Creatures?"

Marcus looked back at her coolly. "And what is your story, vampire? Did you choose to be damned over being dead?"

Lina tried to shrugged, but the chains held her down tightly. Robert and Lilith probably could have broke through it like thread.

I should have paid more attention to Robert's lessons. She thought.

Aloud, she said, "Wasn't my style to get killed and stay dead, yknow." She looked pass him and at the two others. "By the way, when I get out of these chains, I'll pay you back for what you did to my only outfit." Lina indicated the various holes on her tattered white pajamas. Through the tears and rips, they could see that all the arrow wounds were closed, not even a hint of scar remained. Only one scar remained and that was of the cross' doing. Although the wound had closed, they could see through the torn white linen that the mark had remained clear.

"You will not get out of these chains," Marcus informed confidently. "These chains are designed for older vampires. You are only a newborn, there is no way you could have already acquired the strength to break them."

Lina smirked. "Confident, aren't we?" She tried to straighten herself so that she can look at the priest evenly. "We'll see about that. You have to take your eyes off me sometime. And when you do, you won't know what hit ya."

Marcus shook his head, dismissing her comments.

"I think you fail to see you're in a bad situation right now, vampire," the girl commented, looking at Lina with disgust and arrogance.

Lina turned to look at her casually. "Which one of the dogs are you? Luka or Mirna?"

The girls sputtered. Her face reddened. "Who do you think you're talking to?!"

Lina gave her another smirk. "Do you really wanna know the answer?"

"I'll shut that mouth of yours permenantly!" the girl shouted and proceeded to take out a wooden stake.

The young man put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Mirna, calm down, she is only messing with your head."

Lina nodded towards the young man. "Listen to him, Mirna, I think he's the smart one." She snickered.

Mirna tightened her grip on the stake and turned to Marcus. "Father! This is ludicrous! We should finish her off before--!"

Marcus raised his hands to stop her rant. "Luka, take Mirna and go replenish your supplies at the village."

Luka's hands tightened around Mirna's shoulder. She took a step back, glaring at Lina, turned around, and the two of them exited the place.

Lina snorted. "I thought they'd never leave. Obedient pups, aren't they?" She gave Marcus another smirk.

His brows knitted, not in annoyance, but in thought. She's a newborn, how can she not be afraid of her situation right now. The Others we've captured were not as weak as her and yet they were more frightened than she is now.

He pushed the thoughts away and looked back to the vampire. He noticed that she wasn't looking directly at him, rather she was still looking past him. Marcus blinked and smiled, looking down at the golden chained cross worn over his white robes. He took a step closer to her, then closer and closer, until he was about a few steps away from her. She made a motion of moving back each time he took a step, even though the chains restricted her to move away.

"Ah, I see at least something bothers you," he commented with a smirk of his own.

She scowled, trying to look at him but couldn't manage. "Not very priestly of you to have self-satisfaction of others discomfort, Father. Well, what can I say? They did tell me I'll grow an immunity to it sooner or later."

Marcus' green eyes narrowed. "Who are They?"

"You think I'm an idiot to tell you, huh?" she asked in return.

"Tell me! Who are the ones that you know?" he exclaimed.

Lina glared back at him. "No one tells me what to do. If you want to know, then MAKE me tell you."

"So be it. You leave me no choice, vampire," he said quietly. He straightened and took a step back, holding the golden cross within his palm.

Marcus closed his eyes and raised the cross to his praying lips. When he finished, he opened his eyes, lowered his hand.

Lina looked at him boredly. "I'm yawning with excitement," she said dryly. "Oh, please slow down, I'm agonized with pai--"

A piercing pain through her heart stopped her in mid-sentence. Her body convulsed as the pain grew.

"What--What are you doing?!" she shrieked. The pain grew sharper for an instance then dulled. "Stop it! Stop it! STOP!!"

The priest's hands loosened on the golden cross. He looked at the panting vampire with a look that's mixed with guilt and some satisfaction that this method had worked.

Lina glared at him with her vampiric red eyes, which were beginning to slit with anger.

"What did you do to me?!" She demanded, gripping the chain.

He pointed at the scar of a cross where her heart would be. "Even a scar of a cross can be used against a newborn vampire like yourself."

She growled, showing a fang that was starting to grow from her lips. "You'll pay for that, priest." Lina gripped harder on the chains.

"You are finally showing your true nature as a vampire," he commented with an emotional-less expression.

"I'll remember to show you how much it hurts to have something pierce your heart," Lina spat.

"And how much it angers you that you can do nothing about it, even though you're nearly immortal," he said, matter a factly.

Lina narrowed her slitted red eyes at him. He in turn ignored it, instead focused on placing the cross into the robes he wore.

Trying to calm herself down, Lina said, "I don't know what you're trying to do here, but like I said, I'm not gonna say anything. And besides, if those two followers and that gold cross are all that you got..." She tried to shrug. "I think you shouldn't try to mess with Them. They're not newborns like I am. They can snap your neck like a toothpick." Lina smirked at the thought.

"You can do that too, if I gave you the chance," he commented.

He shook his head slightly and gave her a look of weariness. "You don't understand, I'm not a Hunter."

Lina nodded towards the exit. "Those two seem equipped and skilled as one."

Marcus turned his body half way towards the door and glanced at it, then turned back to look at the vampire. "They are in a...situation of their own. Our paths just seem to cross one another."

He crossed his arms over chest and heaved a sigh. "I don't know much about them, to be honest." He chuckled shortly. "But it's not like you're interested."

Lina grunted. "I sort of got my own little problems to worry about right now. As far as those two go, I can care less about their past, present, or future. I'll make them pay for what they did to me regardless."

He chuckled. "Fair enough."

The flame-haired sorceress turned to look at the priest. "YOU, however, is a different story. I'd like to know what you're after, if not to hunt Us. And being that you were the ring leader at the time we first met, I think I deserve that much." She looked casually at him, waiting for a reply.

A moment of silence passed as Father Marcus contemplated the odd request. No other vampires had been interested when he mentioned it. He wondered why she was.

"I..." he started slowly. "I'm looking for someone. Someone...that may have strayed into the Night."

"What, you think he became a vampire or something?" Lina asked.

Marcus uncrossed his arms and clasped them behind his back, sighing. "She. I'm not sure what to think. She disappeared suddenly. Rumors had it that she fell in love with a vampire and fled with the creature into the Night. I've been asked to look for her."

He turned his back to her and Lina saw that there was a big golden cross sewed onto the back of the white robe, she flinched in surprise, gripping at the chains. She swallowed hard, trying to moist her dry throat. Lina shook her head, suddenly feeling weak. Her whole body slacked.

I need blood. I lost too much when I didn't feed to begin with.

Blood. Her mind whispered.

Sweet, untainted blood. His blood...

Lina felt she lost grip of her mind, she couldn't concentrate. She only saw the priest in front of her. Or rather she saw the red blood coursing through his veins. Sweet scented blood, like honey, pure and untouched.

Her mouth salivated. His blood...holy and untainted...blood...

Hearing the chains clinking behind him, Marcus turned around. He blinked as he saw the vampire's unfocused red eyes. Her black pupil slitted within those big red orbs, her fangs fully grown in her mouth. He thought he saw the strangest look on her face, one that was satisfied and fully happy. She should have been weak, losing so much blood earlier. She should have fallen asleep by now, recuperating in her vampirical ways. But now she just had the look of pure self-satisfaction for no reason at all. His green eyes connected to that of ruby red.

Come...

Marcus blinked at the vampire as those words whispered in his mind. What was she up to?

Come...

His eyes narrowed as he took a step forward. He tried to stop himself from taking another but found that he couldn't. A thought suddenly went through his mind and he clenched his fists. As a priest, he knew that he shouldn't have looked into the eyes of vampires, having many skills of wide varieties. This, he remembered from reading, was one of physical manipulation. Although his mind was unwilling, his body moved along to the vampire's bidding.

A bead of sweat slid down his face. Having been a newborn, he didn't think that she was capable of too many skills, much less this particular ability. He knew and encountered many newborns that tend to find it difficult to control their own mind and body, much less someone else's, he underestimated her capabilities...

"Stop," he said softly, as his feet dragged on toward her direction. "I know this isn't what you want to do. Control your mind."

His own body stopped in front of Lina, her eyes too focused on the priest. One side of her lip lifted to smile, showing one pointy fang.

"Your blood," she whispered, putting her lips to his ear. "...is what I want. I can see it. It is coursing through your veins, sweet and untainted. You're sinless, Father, I can smell it."

"Stop," Marcus went on. "You still have your humanity. Get a hold of yourself before you fall further into Darkness that which surrounds you."

She made no replies back as Marcus felt her lips on his neck. His heart started to beat, he could hear it in his ears. Another bead of sweat slid down his burning face. Marcus tried to step back but found his feet nearly bolted to the grounds. He lifted his hands to push her away but she was like a wall, unmovable. Finally, he felt her fangs cut through his skin, felt his blood obeying her needs as they traveled through his body into her mouth. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, feeling very much appalled that he would let such things happened. He heard her swallow, heard the clinking of chains, restraining her in place.

Suddenly his eyes popped open. He fumbled for his golden cross. Finally in his hands, he gripped it with all his might. He prayed, it was all he can do, and ended with, "Amen."

Lina let go of her prey's neck and let out a piercing scream, blood sliding from her lips. She panted heavily, her body bent as low as the chains would let her as she felt the pain through her heart.

Marcus stumbled backwards, covering his ears from the vampire's violent howl. He let the cross go and it hung freely down his neck. The screams stopped abruptly and he looked up to find the vampire growling.

Lina shook her head to clear it. For a second through the pain, she thought she heard a voice, very distant, but she heard it. Let me out, she heard, let me go. But as quickly as the pain had stopped, so did the voices. Then all she heard was herself growled and the priest's thumping heart. She opened her eyes to see her feet.

"It was just a taste," she said, looking up at the priest holding his punctured neck, smirking.

He glared wooden stakes at her, clenching his fists.

She smirked and said, "My, that look you give me, very unlike a priest, Father." Lina casually looked ever to her scar and found that it hadn't disappeared even after she had fed on living blood. She grunted.

"It will never go away," the priest said coldly. "You can feed and feed again for the next millenia and it will still be there." He continued to glare at her as he put the golden cross in his palm. "If you ever touch me again, I will do more than just pray. Do you understand, vampire?" He spit out the last word with disgust.

"What is it that make you feel such disgust to Us?" Lina asked with a glare of her own. "So we feed on blood. Yea, it's disgusting, if you must know until just now, I never once thought I could've managed it, but it's something I have to do to survive. Don't you eat? Well, it's the same concept, so don't be such a hypocrite, Father." She bit off the last word.

"I know you must do what you must to survive," he said. "But that is not what disgusts me. It is the fact that you delve further into Darkness when you need not to." He let out a deep sigh and let loose his golden cross. "I apologize for my actions just now. It's been...a long journey."

"Yeah, that goes double for me," Lina grunted.

His lips curved into a small smile. "What is your name?"

Lina puffed her chest out in proudness. "Well, I didn't wanna boast or anything but they do call me the Sorceress Supreme, Lina--"

"Father Marcus!!" the door burst open as Luka stampede into the abandoned place. "Weres!"

Marcus whipped around sharply. "Are you certain?!"

Luka did not have time to reply as Mirna stumbled in, shooting arrows out the broken windows. "They're coming!"

True to her words three hairy Werewolves burst through the door and windows.

"Heh heh...look what we have here," one of them said, saliva dripping down its mouth.

"Two humans, a priest and a vampire," another said, smirking.

"A newborn," the third said, seemingly the lead of the three as he was in the front. "This is a great evening."

Luka and Mirna stood in front of Marcus with weapons drawn out.

"Oh great," Lina mumbled. "Hairy dogs, what's next? Birdmen?"

The three Weres growled. "You will eat those words when we're done with you, vampire!"

"But first," the second growled and turned to the three humans. "We feast."

With that, both sides rushed each other. It would have been a blur if Lina were not a vampire.

They're good. Lina thought as Luka and Mirna attacked and dodged the Weres.

"Looks like I get the main course," the alpha Were said, salivating.

"Ew," Lina said, making him turn to her. "I know you're very close to dogs but geez, you don't need to drowl all over after each sentence."

"I would watch my mouth if I were you, vampire," he growled then smirked. "Letting these humans get the best of you is nothing to boast about."

"Are you stupid? Or are all Weres that slow?" she countered. "Does it look like I'm boasting, you hairy idiot? I'm here insulting you, do I need to make it any clearer?"

The Were roared in rage, or perhaps annoyance, and charged her. He back slapped her with his claws. Lina's cheek ripped open as blood gushed out of the wound. He gashed her abdomen and blood poured out of her body. Again and again, he attacked her and she had no way to defend herself. She felt the pain but noticed that her mind was slipping away. Then she heard a thump.

Let me out...

Lina blinked. What? Then she heard another thump. Was that my heart...? But...I'm dead...

Pain...pain...rage...Weres...pain...let..me...out...

Then she heard the thump again and again and found that her mind was slipping away as she felt rage creep into her. Her mind went blank and she saw nothing but Darkness covered in red.

Let go...

The Were continued to pound her, roaring in satisfaction as he examined the bloody work he made. Her healing abilities weren't fast enough to heal the wounds that it continued to beat onto her and she hung, wrapped in chains, bloody and helpless.

"Newborns," the Were grunted as he shook his bloody claws. He then turned to the priest that stood watching gaping and helpless.

The two other humans saw what had happened but had no time to think of it as they continued to dodge the attacks.

"Now," the alpha said, "where were we?" He smirked, showing his fangs, his claws clean of vampire blood. He slowly walked towards the priest.

"Father Marcus!" Luka and Mirna shouted from across the room. They tried to make their way towards him but couldn't as they found the two other Weres in the way.

Oh no... Marcus thought. He took a step back as the Were advanced. He gripped his golden cross and prayed.

The Were roared with laughter. "That won't work on us, human! I'll enjoy my holy food!" He laughed again and made a move to rush the priest and found that he couldn't. A dark mist surrounded him, it swallowed him, making him unable to move. He swiped at it with his claws, but it do anything to make it go away.

"What the?!" he exclaimed as he heard a clink behind him. He craned his neck to look behind him and gaped.

The newborn vampire that he had nearly destroyed was awake.

"Im-impossible!" the Were exclaimed as he saw her lift her face, her ruby-red eyes slitted and glowing. "Y-you should be nearly dead by now!"

She gave him a smirk as she gripped at the chains restraining her arms. One side broke, leaving her arm free. She started to pull on the other one.

"No you don't!" the Were shouted as he rushed towards her.

He saw the vampire smile knowingly and felt the dark mist closing on him like a brick wall. He heard the other chain break and then saw nothing but her ruby-red eyes. He gasped as he stopped his movement abruptly and felt a piercing pain in his stomach. He looked down and saw that her thin arms were through his furry abdomen and howled in pain.

She let him back away from her and looked at the other Weres. They both stopped as they heard the howling. They saw their leader hurt, bleeding and gripping his stomach then they saw a blur and then saw Darkness...

Marcus felt sick to his stomach as he saw the vampire suddenly appear in front of each of the Were Luka and Mirna had been fighting then made a swiping motion with her arms. All of a sudden the Were's head flew off in another direction as its body thud onto the floor. Then she disappeared. Marcus sought the other Were and found that the vampire had appeared behind it, emerging from his shadows and made another swipe with her arm. The second Were's head dropped in front of Marcus. He jumped back in surprise and at the same time, disgust. He paled, tasting his lunch in the back of his throat. The vampire then made her way towards the alpha Were, the last of the three. It was still wounded, gripping at its abdomen, growling at the vampire approaching it like Death.

Luka and Mirna came to the priest's side, supporting him as his knee weakened. They stood as pillars as he leaned against him for support and looked on as they found they cannot and will not do anything to stop the vampire from killing the Were.  
No... Marcus thought. This isn't right...there shouldn't be any more killing...I shouldn't let her go further into Darkness...

"Stop!" he shouted at the vampire's back. He pushed away from Luka and Mirna and stepped foward.

"Father!" they exclaimed as they held him back.

"Stop it! You shouldn't kill any further! You shouldn't delve further into Darkness!" he exclaimed.

The vampire either did not hear or chose to ignore him as she raised one of her arms.

"No! Stop! Stop it! Don't kill anymore!"

"Father! Father, she won't listen!" Luka exclaimed, holding onto the priest's arm.

"Don't go near Them, Father!" Mirna shouted as she took hold of his other arm.

Marcus shook his head violently. "No! Stop! LINA!"

The vampire stopped in mid-swipe.

Lina saw shapes, or rather blurs, and dark-red all around her. She heard her name somewhere in all this red blur. Then she felt a burning pain and screamed.

Luka and Mirna gasped as they saw the Were took hold of the vampire's throat. The Were had taken advantage of her few seconds of hesitation. The attacked seemed to deepened the vampire's state of blood-thirst trance and she growled at it, fangs growing. She in turn took hold of its neck and without hesitation snapped it. They heard it, like a limb on a tree being broken, the Were thumped onto the floor, lifeless.

They saw the vampire gasping in air she did not need, they saw her clench her fangs and saw that she had lost a lot of her own blood. It never was a good thing to have a rampaging vampire lose a lot of blood for They will look for other ways to compensate for Their lost.

"This doesn't look good," Luka commented as he saw the ruby-red eyes turn towards them.  
"I don't think we need to stay here any longer."

Mirna nod in agreement and pulled at the priest. "Father, let us go."

The priest held his ground, they saw his brows arched, seeming in thought.

"Father! This isn't the time to be stubborn!" Mirna scowled.

She saw the vampire making her way towards them .

"Father!" she exclaimed.

"Hush!" Marcus said and palmed his golden cross, then closed his eyes. "Stay behind me."

They did as they were told and heard the priest begin to pray.

It didn't affect the vampire at all. She continued to make her towards them. Mirna stretched a hand to pull at the priest but Luka intercepted and held onto her hand, he shook his head at her. Mirna let her hand fall beside her and continued to watch on.

Little by little the vampire closed the distance between them and stood in front of the priest, a couple of steps away.

"Amen," they heard the priest whisper.

The vampire grunted and clutched at where her heart should be. She glared at the priest and mouthed something Luka and Mirna did not hear, the priest in turn, frowned deeper.

"Leave her conscious be, influence of Darkness," they heard him whisper.

The vampire smirked then closed her eyes.

Lina "saw" the redness disappear and opened her eyes to find Priest Marcus and his two lackeys in front of her. She found herself gripping her chest and let go. There were blood all over her and her bloody white pajamas was even more damaged and bloodier, if that was even possible. Lina looked around the place and found the three Weres that had attacked him decapitated and bleeding all over the floor.

"Uh...what...happened?" she asked.

Luka and Mirna suddenly readied their weapons and prepared to charge her. Lina, by reflex, jumped back and felt pain at her side and her neck. She winced at the pain. She was thirsty again and she felt horribly tired. She felt her mind clouding and looked out the door hanging from its hinges to see orange outlines of trees.

"Oh no..." she groaned. "I thought I outgrowned this already..."

Luka and Mirna blinked as they saw Lina crashing down onto the floor.

"What the...?" Mirna said as she relaxed her stance.

They heard snoring come from Lina and blinked again.

"She is still a young vampire," they heard Marcus say. "Even if she was capable of killing three Weres alone."

He brushed pass them, making his way towards the sleeping vampire. "Come, help me make a resting place for her."

"Father, we should just leave her here to burn in the sun," Luka said coldly.

"Yes, why should we help her?" Mirna asked.

"...because she saved our lives," the priest replied.

"But she was about to feed on us too!" she exclaimed.

"..."

He lifted on Lina's arms and started to drag her towards the back exit of the place where the sun had not touched.

"If you two are not going to help me, then I shall do it myself," he said and continued to tug on the vampire.

Luka and Mirna looked at each other then wordlessly helped the priest out the back exit, not liking the idea one bit.

All the while a black crow, perched atop a brick hanging from the wall, watched on with its beady eyes...

-----

Author's note: Yay! I did it! Chap 4 is out! :D 


	6. Chapter 5

Slayers in the Night 

Chapter 5: Night of the Living Undead

-----

Within Darkness, Lina stirred and woke up to nothingness.

"Ugh," she groaned, rubbing her temples. "Something tells me this isn't my dreams."

She heard giggling from behind. "Of course this isn't a dream, you're an Undead, afterall. We don't get dreams."

Lina turned around to see Lilith and Robert. "Where have you guys been?! Do you know what happened to me when you two ditched me back in that lounge?!"

Lilith let out another small laugh. "Of course we know. I had my familiar follow you. You've made some interesting friends."

Lina grunted. "Friends? It's more like I'm being held captive. Thanks for the concern, by the way."

Robert snorted. "You need to learn how to survive without Lilith and I. This is good for you, girl. You've made progress, I've noticed, being in a life threatening situation like that." He smirked. "It does you good to get beaten up."

Lina tsk'ed and brushed at her hair in annoyance. "Where are we anyway? We've established that this isn't a dream." She looked around the dark void curiously.

"This is your conscious, Lina," Lilith replied. "The conscious of an Undead is void save for the Darkness which occupies the Being."

Lina raised an eyebrow. "Oh-kay. Very unproductive." She shrugged. "But whatever. So when will you guys come get me?"

"Oh, we've decided not to," Lilith said with a melodious tone, smiling widely. "For the time being, anyway."

Lina facefaulted. "What?! Why the hell not?!"

"Well, we've decided that it IS best to leave you on your own for awhile," Lilith replied, looking up in thought. She looked back at Lina, the smile plastered on her face. "But don't worry, we're watching close by, or rather, my familiar is. We'll know if anything should happen to you."

Lilith and Robert looked above them suddenly.

"Ah, looks like it's time for us to go back watching," Lilith said.

"Wait! Hold up! Don't leave me here with these people!" Lina exclaimed and tried to make her way towards them. They became blurry images and she ran right through them. "Wait--!" And everything collapsed as she woke up.

Lina opened her eyes to find two things. One: she was buried in a large hole and was now covered with dirt. Two: dirt gets EVERYWHERE even if she was dead and doesn't move in her rest.

"COUGH What the HACK hell did you people HACK HACK do to me NOW?!" She continued to shake dirt off herself. Some got in her undergarments. Which wasn't too surprising considering she had nothing left of the ragged, bloodied pajamas she still wore. She spit out some more dirt from her throat.

Mirna put her hands on her hips and glared at Lina. "For your information, we helped you NOT get scorched by the sun this morning, vampire!"

Lina shook her head from side to side. "By burying me alive?"

"You're no longer alive," Luka said intelligently, arms crossed over his chest.

"We SHOULD have just left you to toast in the sun," Mirna said. "It would have been fun to watch." She smirked at the thought.

"Yeah," Lina said dryly. "Y'know what else would've been fun? Watching three Weres tear the guts out from YOUR stomach!"

"Why you!" Mirna started to pull her arrows out.

Father Marcus stepped in beside her. "Calm down, Mirna."

Luka grabbed Mirna's arms and brought her a few steps back from Lina.

Lina could have cared less as she stood up with a grunt. Her body was healed, that much was clear, but she was thirsty again. She had lost alot of her blood the previous night from the wounds the alpha Were had inflicted on her. She took in a deep breath that she did not needed and turned her back on them.

"Where are you going?" she heard the priest asked.

She looked back at him and replied, "Back. To my friends. They don't wanna come get me so I'm going to them." She waited for no other replies as she tried to walk away.

"I don't think so, vampire!" Lina heard the Huntress exclaimed.

They saw Lina made a gesture like she wanted to take a deep breath then turned around to face them again.

"Look, I don't know what's your problem, but I really don't have time to play with you people right now," Lina said with annoyance.

Mirna's hand went to her crossbow. "We won't let you go around feeding on humans!"

Lina rolled her eyes, putting her hands on her hips. "So what are you gonna do about it?"

Mirna's eyes narrowed. "This!" She shot her arrows at Lina.

Lina blinked. She noticed that the arrows was coming towards her at a slower pace even though the distance between her and Mirna was closer than the first time she got ambushed. She side stepped the attack. Her red eyes slitted as she blurred into the shadows to reappear in front of Mirna. With a flick of her wrist, Mirna's bow was tossed away into the trees surrounding them. Lina made a grab for the Hunter's neck when a sword came to her throat, with her other hand she grabbed for the sword by reflex. To her surprise, her hand started to sizzled. She yelped, letting go of the sword and jumped back.

"A blessed sword," Luka said casually as he stood beside Mirna.

Her hand started to heal, closing completely after a few seconds. She narrowed her slitted red eyes at them. "I can snap both your necks before you two can count to three." Her eyes then turned to the bystanding priest, his hands around his golden cross. "But your priest over there would protect you."

They narrowed their eyes at her as beads of sweat ran down their faces. They knew what she said was true, even if she were a newborn. If it weren't for the scar and Father Marcus' cross, they didn't stand a chance against her when she brung out the true nature of her Being.

"Damn you!" Mirna cursed through clenched teeth.

Lina shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. "You people seem to think that I already am." She gave a sidelong glace towards Marcus and gave him a smirk. "Just so you know, Father, I need to feed again soon. I did lose a lot of blood saving you people afterall."

"You'll feed over my dead body!" Mirna hissed.

"Your wish, not mine," Lina said dryly and took a step towards her.

Marcus side stepped in front of his companions. "Stop...please. You are upsetting them."

Lina looked away from him and his golden cross. "I'm not trying to, yknow. Your followers are the ones not cooperating here."

"They aren't the only ones against the idea of you feeding on a human," the priest said uneasily. His fingers unconsciously went to his neck.

"Well, you guys can donate some blood to me," Lina said, smirking. "I won't bite, I promise." She snickered.

"There's no way I'll let a bloodsucker near me!" Mirna shouted. "That's the most ridiculous suggestion I've ever heard!"

"Geez, calm down," Lina said. "You're gonna have yourself a stroke if you keep getting upset at every little thing people say."

Mirna was about to say something back when Marcus interrupted.

"Perhaps," he started, "you can feed on something other than humans. An animal of some sort."

He looked up in thought. "Uh...provided you do not kill them..."

Lina thought about the idea. She never tried that before.

Maybe it'd work, blood is blood, afterall, she thought.

"You're okay with it?" Lina asked him with a curious look. "I mean you being a priest and all, I thought you'd be all upset about my Being entirely."

"Provided you do not kill them," Marcus repeated, "I understand that you need to do what you need to do to survive on this world."

All of a sudden, the priest gave her a smile. "Thank you for being concerned about my beliefs."

Lina blinked and furrowed her brows. "I'm NOT concerned about your beliefs...I'm just annoyed." She crossed her arms and looked away.

Still smiling, Marcus said, "There is a lion's lair not far away. Luka and I found it while you were...resting. Perhaps that would be sufficient."

"Oh yay," Lina said dryly. "I'm getting lion's blood."

They saw her suddenly looking around in the night sky.

"Ya heard that, guys?! I'm gettin' LION'S blood for dinner tonight! I don't need you two!" she suddenly shouted and stomped off aimlessly.

Marcus looked curiously at Luka and Mirna.

"Her companions," Luka said as if that explained everything.

Marcus continued to look puzzled.

"They are all linked together, her and the ones who Made her," Luka explained. "They can communicated without being together physically."

"Oh," Marcus said.

Mirna grunted. "Hey! The lair's this way, stupid!"

"You're stupid!" came a retort from behind. Lina re-emerged from Mirna's shadow, who jumped away like Lina was a vile disease.

"Don't DO that!" Mirna exclaimed.

Lina laughed. "What kinda Hunter ARE you, gettin' scared of your own 'shadow'?"

Mirna's face reddened. "Shuddup!" Was all she can say and stomped off towards the forest.

"Hey! Wait up! Is that where my dinner is?" Lina asked and followed her.

"Don't call them that! We shouldn't even be letting you live pass this morning much less FEED on something!"

"Hey! I saved your lives, you ungrateful brat!"

On and on, they heard bickering between the vampire and the huntress. The two men looked at each other, shrugged and followed them into the dark forest.

-----

A scream pierced through the silent night.

"My daughter! Somebody save my daughter!!" An old woman shouted, cradling her daughter's head.

The young girl's eyes were clouded, looking into nothingness. Blood dripped out of her punctured neck. She did not respond to the commotion growing around her.

As the villagers responded to the commotion, two shadows disappeared from beside a house.

"Humans are idiots," one of them said, re-emerging from the shadows in a far away forest.

"You used to be one," the second responded.

"...shuddup, Cecil, that was a long time ago."

Cecil smirked. "Had you have enough fun, Brandus? I believe we are done for the night, yes? I still do not understand why you insist on coming out to feed when we have everything we need at home."

Brandus snorted. "Home is boring. Same old thing every night." He turned his back on his companion and started to walk away.

"Regina would be crushed to hear that," Cecil said with a small laugh, following his friend.

"Oh, please! That girl is just happy to BE there! All she thinks about is herself and the riches around her!" Brandus snorted again and waved his hands at his companion, dismissing the subject.

"I see," Cecil said and snickered. It was funny because it was true.

"It's not THAT funny, Cecil," Brandus said dryly. "By the way, when will YOU take in a human?  
You complain about coming out every night but you NEED to, you have no donor." He glanced at his friend.

"I don't need to feed every night, Brandus. We've been through this before," Cecil replied, looking away in annoyance. "And when I do feed, I make it quick, unlike you. I have no need for a human."

"Ah, yer no fun," Brandus whined. "What I'm looking forward to is the brawl that's about to happen in a couple nights." He smiled widely and looked at his friend sideways. "Too bad we'll only get to watch it."

"Well, we've already passed the age limit," Cecil said.

"Yeah, I know. Why didn't we ever take in a newborn to represent us?" Brandus asked.

"Hmm...not sure," Cecil said shortly, then looked up in thought. "I don't think we've ever covered that topic before." He smiled. "After all this time, I'm surprised we didn't--"

Brandus lifted a hand, stopping his friend in mid-sentence. The two stopped walking as Brandus nodded to a red-haired girl approaching a lion.

-----

Lina approached a lion about three times her size, not sure how to go about the situation. She hadn't learned enough to actually feed on a human, much less a lion protecting its cubs. As it was, she had acted on her vampire instincts, drinking the priest's blood and all. The lion started to stir and lazily looked up at the vampire approaching. It growled at her, baring its fangs at her.

"Shh..." Lina whisper and lifted a hand to touch the lion's face. "Easy, mommy, I'm not going to do anything to your cubs." She continued to pat its fur, looking briefly into its eyes. The lion shook its head and yawned, lying back down on its paws.

Lina made a quick swipe, creating a small wound on the lion. Blood dripped out of the wound and into Lina's mouth.

It actually tastes different. Lina thought, gulping down her donated dinner.

"That's enough!" she heard the Huntress hissed. "You're going to kill it!"

Lina lifted her face away from the wound and said, "I'm not going to kill it! Geez, isn't it enough I'm feeding on her and not one of you guys?!"

She put her hands on her hips, her face full of annoyance. "Why am I even doing this for you guys? I don't even know any of you! I still remember the first time you two put arrows through my body!" She pointed her fingers at Luka and Mirna.

"And I'd do it again if it weren't for Father Marcus stopping me!" Mirna hissed.

"You mean you'll try," Lina said, smirking.

Mirna cocked her crossbow draped on her arms and aimed at Lina. "I'll show you a try!" She shot three arrows.

Lina dodged it by jumping up and landed on a branch. She laughed. "That's getting old, Mirna! If you like arrows, I'll show you some arrows!"

"FLARE!" Lina summoned her magic. A fiery arrow started to form when she heard a branch crack from behind her. She glanced at the sound and found two figures in the shadows looking up at her. Their red eyes were the first thing Lina noticed.

Her eyes widen. That means they're--

"DIE!" She heard in front of her and looked in time to see an arrow making its way towards her.

"Agh!" By reflex she jumped back and remembered that she was standing on a branch. Which means the only way was down if not up. She jumped down and flipped towards the three humans. She stood in front of the three humans and glared into the shadows.

Mirna had stopped going after Lina and along with Luka, glared at the shadows.

"Who's there?!" Lina demanded. "Show yourself!"

They all stood silently and readied themselves for battle, Mirna reloading her crossbow and Luka unsheathing his blessed sword.

"A newborn," they heard as the two men emerged from the shadows. "Alone."

Lina narrowed her ruby-red eyes. They were old. She guarded her mind. Maybe as old as Lilith and Robert. She clenched her fists.

I can't fight them, she thought.

One of them started to smirk. He had long light brown hair, tied and draped over his shoulders. "Well, well, Cecil, what do you think we should do?"

Cecil, the other one, didn't reply and continued to look Lina over. This one had short black hair, neatly combed back.

"What do you want?!" Mirna demanded, glaring blessed daggers at them.

Cecil merely glanced at her and said, "We have no business with you humans. Leave while you still have a chance."

Mirna narrowed her eyes. "I don't think so!" She shot arrows towards them.

They did not make a move to dodge it, they just stood there as the arrows went through them.

"Whoa," Lina said. "I need to learn how to do that."

"Where ARE your mentors anyway?" Brandus asked, smiling. "How can they leave a newborn like you up for grabs?"

"Up for grabs?" Lina repeated.

"For older and more powerful vampires like us two to do whatever we want with," Brandus said, giving her a smile that ran chills down her spine.

"T-to do whatever you want?" Lina stuttered and took a step back, paler than usual.

"She's of Lilith and Robert," Cecil said suddenly and nodded towards a black crow perched atop a high branch.

Lina looked at the black crow and said, "Thanks alot, guys! Now you've left me up for grabs! How could you?!" She saw some sort of small ball of power thrown at it. It cawed and dissipated.

"That stick in the mud Robert?" Brandus asked and laughed. "When'd he ever have the patience to take anybody under his wing?"

Cecil suddenly smiled at Lina. "We're sorry if we scared you but we really would like you to come with us now."

"We won't let you take her!" Father Marcus suddenly said and stood in front of Lina.

"Aww, Father, I'm touched," Lina said. "When'd you ever gave a damn about me?!"

Marcus shook his head, dismissing her comment. "Not until you answer me something."

Lina facefaulted. "Hey, hey! Aren't you supposed to be protecting the innocent here?!"

"You're hardly innocent," Mirna mumbled.

"What did you say?!" Lina exclaimed.

"You heard me!"

"What would you like to know?" Cecil asked, ignoring the childish bickering.

Marcus' brows knitted. "Have any of you taken in or know anybody that has taken in a human recently?"

Brandus snorted. "Most of Us take humans every night."

Marcus' face reddened. "That is not what I meant..."

"Then what did you mean?" Brandus asked with annoyance.

"I mean as a lover...perhaps in your world, they would be a pet of some sort to keep around...for their blood," Marcus asked.

"Most of Us do that too," Brandus said, more aggravated. "Look, this is getting annoying. Why should we play twenty one questions to get that newborn? I can rip out your hearts before you can blink--"

"Brandus," Cecil said, glancing at his companion. He looked back at Marcus and asked, "Anybody in particular?"

Marcus nodded curtly. "Her name is Rosemary. About Mirna's height and build with long, wavy, light golden hair. She's been missing and I've been told that perhaps one of your kind took her."

Brandus looked at Cecil and shrugged. "Don't look at me, Cecil. I have no clue."

Cecil looked at Marcus and shook his head slightly. "We don't really go into others' personal matter. It's difficult to know those kinds of things."

Marcus looked down as if in shame. "I see...thank you anyway...Mirna, Luka, let's go."

The three humans turned to the opposite direction.

"He-hey! Wait a minute! You people are leaving me here?!" Lina exclaimed.

Luka looked at her calmly. "That was the whole purpose of leaving you alive. Well, as alive as you can get."

Lina grunted and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, gee, thanks. By the way, you're very welcome for saving your asses last night from the Weres!" She turned away from them and grumbled. "The nerve of these heartless people!"

Marcus stopped and looked at Lina. "Oh, that reminds me. You might not want to tap into your Darkness too much."

Lina looked at him, puzzled. "What?"

"Last night," he replied. "You tapped into your Dark conscious. That's how you went berserk and killed those Weres. If it weren't for the cross burn on your heart, you would have killed all of us too." He indicated the scar through Lina's tattered remains of her outfit.

"Which I should have done, what with you people ditching me now," Lina grunted.

"In any case, I warn you to be very careful when you are cornered, make your decisions wisely. I pray that it will not be your last resort," Marcus said and walked on, the two following close behind.

Mirna turned back to look at Lina briefly, for once not having much to say. She turned around and walked away.

With that, the three humans exited the world of Darkness for which they did not want to cross.

"I can't believe they ditched me like that! After all I did for them!" Lina exclaimed after them.  
"Not even an escape route for me!" She turned her annoyed face back to the two vampires.  
She grunted. "Now what?"

"Now," Brandus said, smirking. "You come with us."

Lina narrowed her eyes. "And if I don't?"

"Then it's going to hurt," he replied.

Lina swallowed a lump that formed in her throat. They might be more powerful but she was Lina Inverse! She wasn't about to give up and go along with what they had in mind so easily!

"Then it's going to hurt," Lina said and jumped back into the shadows. She'd rather die trying to escape.

Lina emerged what she thought was in back of them but found on Cecil's back. She let out a gasp as she sensed something from behind her. She quickly jumped out of the shadows and away from Brandus who swiped her with his hand.

She turned around and found herself nose to nose with him. A blow to her gut caught her in mid-gasp. She felt herself fall. Brandus caught her shirt and brought her up.

"So powerless," he scoffed into her face.

Lina coughed out air and held her stomach painfully. "Y'know, you're not supposed to be this rough with girls."

Brandus grunted. "Gender is of no matter to me. When in battle, it's either you're powerful or you're not." With that he hurled her into a tree. She slammed into it back first and slid down in pain. Blood trickled down her mouth. If she were still human, every one of her bones would have broke again and again.

Her red eyes clouded. She felt the two older vampires looking down at her. She started to see Darkness again, heard the voice again, her Dark conscious, Marcus called it.

...again...again...let me go...

So am I cornered? She heard herself think. Is this my last resort?

...yes...yes...again...

Lina shut her eyes. No.

...yes...

NO! Get a hold of yourself Lina! It's controlling you! Nothing controls you! NOTHING!!

She open her eyes wide and looked up at the two bending slightly to look at her. They edged back slightly at the abruptness of her actions.

"LIGHTING!!" She shouted and shoved a ball of bright light into their faces.

"AGH!!" she heard Brandus exclaim and saw the two of them backing away covering their eyes.

She took off in a dead run. With her being a vampire, a cheetah couldn't have caught up with her. She didn't bother merging with shadow again. It didn't matter because the two other vampires could catch her anyway. Lina dared a glance behind her and found nothing after her. She sped up and turned around. She felt herself run into a wall.

Brandus stood in front of her and grabbed her neck. She tip-toed as he lifted her up off the ground.

"That is enough fooling around!" his fangs showed as he growled at her, his red eyes glowed.

"Ngh!" was all Lina managed through his hold. She grabbed his hand and tried to pry it off to no avail.

He lifted her neck towards his fangs.

"You are a nuisance!" he said before he bit down on her neck.

She felt every drop of blood that coursed through her body into his mouth. Her eyes became heavy, so did all her body feel as her hands sagged against her body.

Can we feed on each other? was all she thought before she drifted off into unconsciousness again.

-----

Brandus pulled the unconscious newborn away from his fangs and snorted. "That's why we never Made one."

"Well," Cecil said from his side. "Let's go back before her guardians come flying to her rescue."

Brandus grunted. "It's not like they can't come into Turquoise anyway."

Cecil smiled and said, "Yes, but Turquoise is our territory. And besides, they'll understand that we're only borrowing their newborn. It's not like we're going to keep her."

"Aww, we're not?" Brandus asked and smirked.

"Come, Brandus," Cecil said, "you are smarter than to mess with Lilith and Robert."

Brandus waved his hands. "Yeah, yeah, it was only a joke, Cecil. If you had a sense of humor, you would have understand it."

He ignored the comment. "Well, let us go and take care of our borrowed newborn before she's dehydrated to death," Cecil said and blended into the shadows.

Brandus shrugged to no one in particular, draped the unconscious vampire over his shoulders and followed his companion back to Turquoise, their and every other vampire's home.

-----

Author's note: Yay! Chap 5! Is it just me or are the chapters gettin' shorter and shorter!? Well, I tried my best! More new characters come in and the old ones exit! BUT! Perhaps that's not the end of those humans...ahh...a foreshadowing...beware...

Yea, so Lina still has her magic. It's just I hadn't brung it up much because I wanted to focus on her vampiric abilities! I think her magic is gonna be used more in future chapters tho! :D


	7. Chapter 6part I

Slayers in the Night 

Chapter 6: Between Life and Death-part I

-----

Ruby-red eyes cracked open to darkness once again.

The newly Undead Lina Inverse groaned in the darkness that met her eyes.

"I'm beginning to make a habit of this..."

She attempted to sit up and found that there was something weighing down on her left arm. She looked to her left and found that there was a fairly big lump underneath the light sheets that covered her.

Lina laid back down on the soft mattress and stared up into the ceiling, wondering if she should find out what was under covers number one.

Well, I gotta get up sooner or later, she thought to herself. It can't be any worse than it already is...

She took an unnecessary breath and lifted the light sheets and peaked under. Lina gasped as big round, innocent blue eyes popped open and met her gaze lazily.

A boy, about nine or ten, lifted his head off Lina's arms and rubbed his sleepy eyes. He turned his neck slightly to sit up and showed a punctured wound on his delicate young throat.

"Oh, is it evening already?" he asked groggily.

Upon getting no repsonse, he looked at her wide ruby-red eyes with innocent curiousity. "Huh? Are you okay, m'lady?"

Lina didn't respond. She sat up quietly, dropped her legs over the soft bed, closed her eyes and looked up at the ceiling again.

"AAGGHHH!" Lina screamed at the top of her lungs, jumping away from the bed.

"WAHHH!!" The young boy exclaimed in surprise. He clutched at the sheets and looked at the rampaging vampire with fear.

"Give me Weres, give me Lycans, but what the HELL is a BOY doing on the bed?! And that WOUND!!" She grabbed her flame mane in frustration. "Oh, L-sama! WHY is this happening to ME?!"

She whipped back around at the boy and pointed an accusing finger at him. "WHO are you?!"

He was about to reply when Lina cut him off. "Wait a minute! WHERE am I?!"

"M'lady! M'lady, calm down! Please!" the boy tried to calm her down. He inched off the bed and made his way towards her.

Lina was about a head taller than he was. He had mousy brown hair and a bed-head. He was just a regular human boy.

He looked up at her and said, "I should be the one that's supposed to be afraid of you, m'lady. You ARE an Undead, afterall."

Lina closed her eyes again and took her red eyes away from blue ones.

What is it with innocence and blue eyes?

With calm and patience, she asked again, "Who are you?" She bore her eyes on him again.

"Me?" his eyes widen as if surprised that she cared to know who he was. "Um...I'm..My name is..um..." His cheeks tinged pink and he started to twiddle his fingers.

Lina put her hands on her hips and said with slight annoyance, "It's not a hard question, y'know."

He looked down as if ashamed. "Um..no, it's not...it-it's just that it's been awhile since anyone cared about my name."

This time he was the one who took a deep breath.

He took a step back and bowed like a gentleman would to a lady. "My name is Melaverne, m'lady." He straightened and smiled, proud of himself. "But everybody here calls me Mel, though. And you, m'lady? They were in such a rush last morning that I didn't have time to ask anybody."

"First of all, stop calling me m'lady, it's annoying. Second, my name is Lina, so call me Lina," she replied and sighed. "Where am I?"

She looked around the room and found nothing out of the ordinary richly decorated room with a thick black curtain of the windows. Before Mel could reply, she walked back to the bed and brought her dead body down on the bed, sensing that she might need to after she's through asking him questions. Mel followed like an obedient pup but did not sit down. He stood in front of her and clasped his hands behind his back.

"This is Turquoise, m'lady," he replied. "You did not know?" He asked curiously.

Lina's eyebrow twitched. "Does it look like I know?!"

He immediately looked apologetic and ashamed. "I'm sorry, m'lady..."

Lina's eyes soften upon seeing his face and said softly, "No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled like that. It's been one hell of a week for me, y'know what I mean?"

Mel nodded and smiled, "I understand, m'lady."

Lina ignored the fact that he seemed so pleased to agree with her and asked, "So what is this Turquoise place?"

"Well, to begin, this is vampire's territory," Mel replied. "No other Creatures of the Night are allowed here."

Lina peered at Mel and said, "But...you're human..."

Mel nodded. "Yes, I mean, except for humans and vampires, no Others can set foot on Turquoise."

Lina instantly looked at Mel's wounded neck. "Don't tell me humans are..."

He nodded again. "We are just walking food." He smiled so innocently that it made Lina sick to her stomach.

She went paler than was possible for her dead body. "You're kidding me...so...you were my...I..."

He turned away slightly, a shy smile on his face, his cheeks tinging pink again. "I was glad... that I was selected for the duty to...look after you." Mel turned his blue eyes to look at Lina's red ones. "I knew you weren't like the Others that dwell in Turquoise." He looked away again. "Now, at least the other humans won't make fun of me anymore..." His smile faltered as he seemed to went into thought.

"Others?"

"Oh, yes," Mell said. "There are many, many humans within Turquoise. The vampires that dwell here tend to be picky about the humans they choose. Ever since I was born, I was never chosen..." His face lit up again as he looked at his vampire. "I was really glad to find that I was your human!"

Lina blinked. "My human? My HUMAN?! Listen, Mel! You're not a dog! You're not something to be chosen! You're HUMAN, Mel, HUMAN! You have a life!"

Mel blinked in confusion and shook his head slightly. "I know, m'lady, that is why I'm glad to be your human."

"Stop it!" She shouted as she bolted off the bed.

Mel's eyes widened at the demand.

"Don't say that so casually! Can't you see?! This is wrong on so many levels! Oh! L-sama! How was I so oblivious to something like this when I was alive?!" She stomped around maniacally and stopped at the oak wood door. She leaned on it and massaged her temples.

"M'lady? M'lady, are you alright?" Mel said worriedly and went to the vampire's side. His warm hands held onto her ice cold arms as he looked up at Lina. "Are you hungry? Do you need to feed?"

Lina's eyes widened at how he casually asked the question. She blinked and found that she was looking through his skin and at the red blood coursing through his veins. She swallowed her dry throat and clenched her fists.

Her eyes strayed to the wound on his neck, his delicate young neck, full of blood, warm innocent blood, like the priest's virgin blood.

She shut her eyes tight and shook her head slightly. "No..."

"But--"

"NO! No, no, no, NO!" She shouted and whipped around to pound a fist into the wooden door.

She heard Mel gasped at her actions and a thud from the other side of the door.

"What was that?" she asked, taking her fist from the hole she made in the thick door.

"Uh...I think someone is outside, m'lady," Mel replied and went to open the door.

Lina winced at the candle light pouring into the dark room. Her eyes were still sensitive and unadjusted.

"Cathy!" Mel exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" He opened the door wider to let himself out.

Lina peered around the door to see a girl with blonde curls and brown eyes getting up off the floor. She was a few inches taller than Mell, perhaps a couple of years older than he was as well.

"Well, I was just checking to see if you were awake," she replied, patting her white dress. Upon seeing Lina at the doorway, she instantly bowed.

"I apologize, m'lady, if I had disturbed you," she said.

Lina brushed her hair back annoyingly and walked back into the dark room.

"It's Lina, just Lina, how many times do I have to say that?" they heard her grumble.

Mel stepped back from the doorway to let Cathy in. She took a step into the room and did nothing else.

"Well? Was there anything you wanted to see me for, Cathy?" Mel asked as he shut the door lightly.

Cathy blinked, her eyes adjusting to the dark room and replied, "Well, actually, I was supposed to check on Mistress Lina."

Lina's face contorted with distaste. "Mistress?"

"Master Brandus and Master Cecil summons you, m'lady," Cathy continued.

"Ugh! What the hell do they want now?!" Lina cursed to no one in particular.

Cathy looked unsurely at Mel. He shrugged.

"Um...I'm not sure, m'lady, I dared not ask," she said and bowed apologetically.

Lina's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. "Will you two stop acting like everything you do is wrong? And stop bowing. And stop calling me M'LADY!"

"A-are you hungry, m'lady?" Cathy asked unsurely. "Why haven't you fed her, Mel? Can't you see she is in a bad mood?"

Mel shrugged. "She doesn't want to. I offered."

A vein popped out of Lina's head. "Stop it! What does me being in a lousy mood have to do with feeding?!"

"Uh...well, most of the vampires here are moody when they are hungry...they tend to get very violent too...." Cathy replied.

"Ugh! How many more OTHERS are there?!" Lina exclaimed.

"Oh, many, m'lady," Mel said and made his way towards a corner of the room, opened a built in closet and took an overcoat out.

He made his way towards Lina. "Even Master Brandus and Master Cecil aren't able to keep count of all the vampires that come and go in Turquoise."

He draped the deep-red velvet coat over Lina's shoulder. To accomplish the feat, he had to stand on his tip toes. He started to button the coat but Lina swat his hands away. He winced and shook his hurt hands.

"Oh, sorry," Lina said and started to button the coat up herself. "So are those two the masters of this Turquoise place or something?"

"Not masters, really," Mel said. "But they are the first of those who started to make Turquoise their permanent home."

Lina sighed. "This is the last thing I need right now but...c'mon, I need to get out of this place and I'm sensing that I can't do anything without having talk to him first." She stood up and walked to the door, the two humans following close behind.

"Leave? Where are you going, m'lady?" Mel asked as Lina turned the knob.

She stopped and turned her head to look at Mel. "Away from this crazy place"  
Lina opened the door and took a step out into the grandiose hallway. She stopped briefly to adjust her eyes.

"You're taking me along, right, m'lady? I'm your human, afterall," Mel said.

Lina sighed and turned around. "Look, Mel, you're not my human.  
You're A human."

A stab of guilt pierced through Lina's dead heart as she looked at Mel's crestfallen face. She ruffled his hair and said, "Besides, I'm making my way towards this MidNighte place. I thought only vampires are allowed here."

Upon hearing the word midnight, the two human ooh'ed.

Cathy shook her head as she said, "Vampires and their humans are allowed there, m'lady. Mel is allowed in MidNighte so long as he is your human."

Lina turned her back on them and rubbed her temples. "Okay, one problem at a time, please, children. I already have one big ass of a problem I have to deal with any moment now."

Mel and Cathy giggled softly behind her.

"It's not funny," Lina whined. "This is serious, why am I even here?" She looked around the hallway and asked, "By the way, isn't it awfully quiet around here? Didn't you two say there are many, many others in this place?"

"Oh, they're not awake yet, m'lady," Mel said.

"Later on in the night, it will be full, believe us, m'lady," Cathy said and nodded sagely.

"Ugh...I'll take your word for it," Lina said. She looked behind her at Cathy and said, "Well? Shall we proceed into my Chamber of Doom?"

Cathy giggled and lead them to their destination. "You're right, Mel. Mistress Lina is not like the Others here in Turquoise."

Mel smiled widely. "I told you so!"

Lina began to rub her temples again. "This is gonna be a long night..."

...To Be Continued...

Author's Note: I know! I know! This is a short chapter! But! But this is part A! part B will be coming out real soon! my net connection if really iffy and I'm afraid I won't get another chance to update in a loooong if I don't do this now! SOWWIE people!!! Please come back!!!!


	8. Chapter 6partII

Slayers in the Night 

Chapter 6: Between Life and Death-part II

Notes: I've decided to bring a character from another anime called Vampire Hunter D....yea, it's D (and Left-Hand too, of course). for those who know the anime prolly know who i'm talkin' about. For those who do not know, fear not! I shall explain who and what he is in the next chapter! It's not like you need to know him so much to understand the rest of the story! It's not gonna be a crossover!

-----

"How DARE you take her without our permission?!" Robert's voice boomed within the hallows of the room.

Brandus sat boredly on a velvet chair, legs crossed and brushed his hair away from his pale face.

"Please, Robert, no need to be so loud," Brandus said and rubbed his ears. "You are disrupting my delicate hearing."

Robert narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists. "I'll show you delicate, you bastard!"

Lilith, with a calm face, held out her arm to hold Robert back. Robert continued to glare at Brandus but stepped back behind her. Cecil stood behind Brandus and smiled.

"What is it you want with Lina, Brandus? I'm sure you know she is still a newborn. What possible use could she be to you?" Lilith asked calmly.

Brandus leaned his elbow on the arm rest and smiled. "My dear Lilith, you should be more like Robert and express your emotions. I'm sure you're pissed as well, why don't you show it?"

Lilith narrowed her eyes slightly. "That does not answer any of my questions, Brandus."

"I wasn't answering your questions, Lilith," Brandus replied, grinning.

"You are despicable, Brandus," she commented coldly. "You do realize that you are crossing our line of authority. Taking others' newborns is against MidNighte's rules."

"Ah, yes, but we are not in MidNighte now, are we, my dear Lilith?" Brandus returned.

"The rules applies wherever we are," she retorted. "You, above all else, should know better than that."

She turned her eyes towards Cecil and scoffed, "And you, Cecil. I can say that I expected this from Brandus, but you?"

Cecil shrugged. "Sometimes, people change, Lily. It does gets boring sometimes, yknow."

Lilith narrowed her eyes and turned back to Brandus who sat smirking in front of her. "You did not answer my question."

"Ah, patience, my good Lilith, do not worry, I intend to answer every one of your questions," he replied, standing up and walking towards Lilith. He stoped a few inches away from her and bent his face down very close to hers.

"Provided you give me some of your time," he whispered into her ears.

A firm hand gripped his forehead and pushed him back not so gently. Brandus straightened and brushed a few strands of hair away from his face, smirking at Robert.

"Don't get near her," Robert commanded, narrowing his eyes at the silver haired vampire.

"My, my, protective now, aren't we, boy?" Brandus commented.

Robert clenched his fists, his whole arm openly shaking with anger and disgust.

Lilith took a step back into his body and pat his hands. "Calm down, Robert."

He instantly let loose his hands and dropped them besides his body. She gave him a small smile then turned back to Brandus.

"Brandus, we have no time to spare for you," she said. "It is only a full moon away before we are due at MidNighte. I can't say I'm surprised to see you two daddling on in Turquoise but surely you know the punishments for not showing."

Brandus grunted and crossed his arms over his chest. "You take me for a full fledged fool, Lilith."

"And that is because you act like one, Brandus," she replied, her calm facade showing.

Cecil snickered softly. Brandus shot a look behind him. "Quiet, you." Cecil shrugged in return.

"You take others' newborn without permission knowing full well it is against the rules even outside of Mid--"

"Blah, blah, blah, blah! Yes, yes, we know that, Lilith, now can you please let me explain WHY we did that?" Brandus said with an exasperated look.

Lilith blinked and waved her hands slightly. "Do explain your actions, Brandus, please."

Brandus sat down on the same chair and heaved a sigh. "As you know, the Tournament is coming near."

Lilith nodded. "Yes, I believe you still have that every year."

Brandus nodded and said, "And as you also know, it is only meant to be a harmless entertainment for us higher-up vampires, yes? Watching lower vampires engage battles, trying desparately to win each other over, it's the best entertainment in Turquoise!"

"Your point, Brandus?" Lilith asked, with a suspicious look on her face.

Brandus cleared his throat and replied, "Cecil and I want to submit a newborn this year."

Lilith blinked. "Why would you want to do that? Why Lina? It doesn't really make sense coming from you, Brandus."

"Easy, my dear Lilith, clam yourself," Brandus said.

"Regarding why we're submitting your newborn is because we have none," Cecil replied.

"They're too much of a headache to raise. Having to look after these vampires and humans amongst Turquoise is way more than enough," Brandus said, resting his elbow on the arm rest.

Cecil nodded in agreement.  
"Just this once, before we move on to give our respects to our Lord, we want to be truly entertained."

"Entertained? This is Turquoise! Vampire's central entertainment!" Robert exclaimed. "What more do you two want?!"

"To see that our future isn't going to be within the hands of weaklings," Cecil replied. "And to be entertained in the process, of course." He smiled brightly.

"I must say, Lilith, you know a way of picking your newborns," Brandus commented. "That Lina of yours...I see some great potential in her."

"What's this? The great Brandus of Turquoise complimenting someone other than himself?" Lilith said with grin.

Brandus' eyebrow twitched but he chose to ignore her comment. "That is why we want to enter your newborn into the Tournament."

Lilith looked unsurely at Robert. He in turn shrugged. "It's your decision, Lilith."

She frowned slightly. "I'm not sure it's a good idea..."

"What, are you doubting your own newborn?" Brandus chided.

"I am not doubting her," Lilith said. "But she still has a small problem with coping in with other vampires. I don't think it's such a good idea to have her stay in Turquoise for so long."

"What are you saying, Lilith?" Brandus asked with bewilderment. "The Tournament is only a couple of nights away! I'm sure she can cope with that much."

"She doesn't know much about being a vampire yet, is all I'm trying to say, Brandus," Lilith said.

Brandus looked quizzically at Cecil, who shrugged, as Lililth looked concernly at Robert, who twitched with annoyance.

-----

"Look, don't you two have anything better to do?" Lina asked the two humans following closely behind her. "I know where 'straight ahead' is. I doubt I'll get lost with directions like that, so stop following me already!"

She sidestepped to dodge bumping into another vampire. The mansion had come alive all of a sudden. Like a light switch had been turned on to wake every human and vampire up. They were all over the place. Lina wasn't sure what they were doing but they seemed intent on where they were heading, which Lina couldn't figure out where to because they were going all sorts of directions, making her 'straight ahead' seemed more difficult than it really should be.

"Where are they all going to?!" Lina said and pushed back a group of humans rushing off into a room.

"Oh, we're not sure, m'lady," Mel replied and followed close behind.

"But they all have SOMETHING to do in Turquoise. This is the central entertainment for all vampires and their humans, m'lady," Cathy said and grab hold onto Mel's shoulder.

Lina felt Mel grip her coat, she chose to ignore it. "Like some sort of sin city, heh?"

"Yes! That's exactly what it is, m'lady!" Cathy nodded enthusiastically.

Lina made a gesture of sighing exasperatedly. She shook her head slightly and was about to continue on her way when she noticed the group humans that had pushed through her and into room bowing lowly and exiting the room.

"W-we apologize deeply, Mistress Camille," Lina heard one of them say.

"We really didn't know you were in here," another said.

The group moved as one out of the room as a figure stood in front of the wooden door frame. A red-eyed vampire with deep-dyed burgundy-brownish hair stood with one of her hands on her hips, an annoyed look on her face.

"Well, dearies," she said through red lips, "I am busy with dearest Fable at the moment. Do be good little humans and run along."

Some of the girls looked like they were about to cry when they heard that. They tearily ran away through the hallway, once again pushing pass Lina and her two followers.

The vampire called Camille trailed her eyes after them, a look of disgust on her face when she blinked and noticed Lina and her two humans hiding behind her. Lina saw one of her eyes twitch.

Lina raised an eyebrow and put a hand on her hips. She looked straight at Camille with an annoyed look of her own.

"Who's that?" Lina asked the two behind her.

"Um...that's Mistress Camille," Cathy whispered.

And with an even lower tone, she said, "You should be careful of her, m'lady...she tends to get...violent easily.."

Mel nodded slightly with agreement.

Lina grunted as she started to turn back to her 'straight ahead'. As a visitor, she didn't think it was such a good idea to start any bad "stuff" with the residents of the place. Odds are, they will have more allies than enemies.

"Hey, you there," Lina heard her melodious voice floating around her ears. She tried to sigh but only got annoyed that she had again forgot that she didn't need to breath anymore. She tilted her head back towards the vampire with an emotionless expression.

"What?" she asked, not particularly caring about the tone she gave out.

The vampire crossed her arms over her big chest, making them look like they were going to spill over her deep neckline.

"For a newbie in Turquoise, you've got a bad attitude," she stated her observation with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you know how to show proper respects to elders?"

Lina kept her face emotionless and said, "That's great. Who would've known vampires here are that observant?" She turned her back carelessly towards the vampire. She started towards her destination. "You're old, but you're no elder of mine."

The vampire narrowed her eyes at Lina. "You need to learn respect, newbie."

Lina raised her chin defiantly and asked, "Who's gonna make me?" She knew at the back of her mind that she didn't need any more problems than she already had, but this was a good exception. Lina put a hand on her hip and said, "Last I knew, Brandus and Cecil are the ones in charge of this place."

"That's MASTER Brandus, to you," she hissed.

Lina snorted. "No, it's just Brandus to me." Lina turned her back on her and said, "I don't have time for old hags like you."

Lina heard a tap from the red heels that the vampire wore and whipped around to block a clawed hand swiping at her neck. The suddenness of their actions startled Mel and Cathy back a few paces as they stared wide-eyed as Lina jumped away from Camille's attacks.

Lina stood her straightest and pointed a finger at Camille. "Listen, you! I really don't have time for this! I got better things to do than beat your butt to a bloody pulp!"

"You bitch!" Camille hissed and rushed Lina again, this time swiping at her with both hands.

Lina dodged the attacks and narrowed her eyes. "You asked for this!" She raised a pale arm and summoned her magic. "FIRE!" Her hand aimed at the vampire charging her again. "BALL!"

The ball of fire rushed Camille at a fast pace. Camille gasped sharply and narrowly dodged the fire, singeing the edge of her red skirt.

The fireball blasted on a nearby ivory statue. By now there was a gathering around the two vampires. Vampires, as well as humans, stopped their evening activities to see what was going on.

"Who is that?"

"That's the newborn vampire that just came in."

"She knows magic!"

Camille continued to glare holy daggers at Lina, apparently underestimating Lina greatly.

-----

"You don't understand, Lily," Brandus continued to explain. "This isn't only for our entertainment."

Brandus rubbed his temples slightly.

Lilith looked at him calmly. "What do you mean?"

"We need to know what kind of vampires we are raising here," Brandus replied. "We need to know if they are powerful enough."

Lilith raised an eyebrow. "Powerful enough for what?"

Brandus and Cecil looked at one another.

"We've heard rumors," Cecil began, "that the Lycans have made a deal with a Hunter."

Robert grunted. "And? That is enough to be viewed as a threat?"

"You don't understand, this isn't some amateur Hunter. We've heard that it's a Dunpeal," Cecil said.

Both Lilith and Robert gasped.

"Are you certain?" Lilith asked sharply.

Cecil shook his head. "It is a rumor, Lilith, as I've said, we are not entirely sure, however...."

Brandus shrugged. "We can't be too sure, y'know."

"So, what, you guys think the Lycans hired a Dunpeal to attack MidNighte?" Robert asked, a look of disbelief on his face.

"No," Cecil started to reply. "We do not think they're stupid enough to attack our main city head-on, Dunpeal or no. But...there's a good chance that if this rumor is true, the Hunter is hired to attack Turquouise."

Lilith looked at Robert uneasily. "What with all the newborns and humans here, it's a good way to destroy one of the few vampire central cities..."

Brandus nodded. "That's right. So you see, Lily, what our dilemma is. I have seen amateur Hunters and amateur vampires, especially in Turquoise." He sighed. "Some are good for nothing, lazying around."

Lilith grunted unlady-like. "Like you. You gave them that example, Brandus."

Brandus gave Lilith a hurt look. "Hey, I resent that!"

"In any case," Cecil said. "We want to submit your newborn into the Tournament. Like Brandus said, she has great potentials to develop powerful abilities."

Robert hmm'ed. "And here I thought you two were just procrastinating. For once, you two have a good reason to arrive late at MidNighte."

Brandus waved his comments away with a snort. "We're not as much of a fool you two take us for."

Robert shrugged. "Could've fooled me."

Brandus gripped the arm rest and pushed himself up. "Why, you!"

A boom suddenly sounded from outside the door.

Cecil looked sharply towards the sound and said, "What's that?"

Lilith looked exasperated as she said, "That would be Lina not playing nice..."

Robert snickered. "Soon you'll know better than to pick on that girl."

Brandus and Cecil ignored the comments and ran towards the doors. Lilith and Robert shrugged at each other and followed them out the door.

-----

In the small village, resting itself by the valley, a crowd had build around an old mother and her young, ill struck daughter.

With tears flowing down her wrinkled face, gripping her daughter's slender shoulder, she choked, "Somebody, somebody, please! Help! Get the doctor! Please!"

A few started to break away from the crowd to get help. A man shouted at a boy to go to the next village.

No one noticed a dark clothed man entering the village. He rode on a black horse, with a long sword behind his back, and a black hat covering half his face, he nudged his horse further into the crowd. He looked down from his sitting at the pale young girl. He instantly noticed the punctured wound on her neck and scent coming off her plain clothes.

The old woman barely eyed him and turned back to rock her daughter back and forth.

With an emotionless face, he said, "She is not in my mortal danger. Feed her liver and she should recover from her coma." With that, he turned his horse and rode out of the quaint village.

The villagers watched silently as the black horse galloped out of the village and into the thick forest beside the main pathway that connected to another town.

The horse stopped short as it entered the forest.

"She was bitten by a vampire," he said to no one.

A snort sounded beside him. "Anybody could've told you that, D. It's from who that I'm wondering about."

D went into thought as he nudged his horse further into the forest. "It's from an older vampire. Very neat. Discreet."

Another snort. "They're smarter than I thought."

"The scent is from that of an older vampire. Could be the one mastering the underlings," he said.

"Interesting..." the voice said. "By the way, where are we going?"

"I smell the same scent in this direction," D replied.

A snicker sounded. "Your hound sense of a nose actually comes in handy sometimes. Hahah--Ngh!"

D squeezed his left hand. He stopped his horse as he entered a clearing that was destroyed by some sort of battle.

His left hand wheezed as he let go of his grip. "Damn you, D! I almost choked to death!"

D looked around the clearing. "I can't smell it anymore."

His left hand grunted. "It would only make sense if they can travel without leaving a scent, D."

D suddenly looked towards another entrance to the clearing.

"Father, I don't see why we came back!" he heard a female voice whine.

D made his way behind the shadows of the woods.

"We may be able to follow them back to their resting place," a man's voice sounded as a priest, robed with a white overcoat appeared into the clearing, looking frantically around the destruction.

Another man garbed with vampire slaying equipment followed the woman behind the priest.

"Wouldn't that be a bad idea, Father?" he asked the priest, who was examining a dented tree trunk. "It's one thing to trap a newborn, but to follow the enemy into their nest is absurd, Father."

The priest did not reply as he looked at a drop of blood on the ground.

"Ah! This must be Lina's blood," he said, as he fumbled for his golden chain. "What luck! With the scar she has on her chest..." He smeared the blood onto the golden cross. The cross glowed red as the crimson blood started to sizzle away. "This cross should keep glowing if we head towards the right direction!" He stood up and started to turn in every direction.

The man and the woman looked uncertainly at one another as they saw the cross glow red than the glow dissipated as the priest turned in all sorts of directions.

"Come on, you two! This way!" The priest motioned them towards a random direction, his crimson cross glowing brightly in the night.

D watched as the three human left the clearing. Without a word he nudged his horse towards their direction and silently follow them, apparently, into Turquoise, where the vampires' lair should lay.

-----

Author's note: SooOOooOoOoOooo sorry this part B chappie took so long people! but but but--it was the computer's fault! i swear it was!!! THANKS TO ALL YER GREAT REVIEWS!!! ;; it keeps me going yknow! : Is it just me or are there too many new characters now? I'll try to keep it under control, i swear! BTW, whilst typing this part B chapter up, I was blasting music into my ears, chatting with a friend online, and looking for various stuff to download online.... sorrie everybody if you guys/gals see any mistake, please ignore it!!! ;; please come back!!


	9. Chapter 7part I

Slayers in the Night 

Chapter 7: In the Gist of it Allpart 1

"Lina, you know better than to start a fight like that," Lilith scolded the younger vampire.

Lilith, Robert and the two other older vampires were back at the main chamber room. Lina stood in front of the four elder vampires, arms crossed across her chest. Mel and Cathy stood behind her, somewhat wanting to hide themselves as much as possible behind Lina's back.

"I'm not on the wrong, Lilith!" Lina said defensively, waving her arms around. "SHE is the one who started it!"

Lilith crossed her arms and bore her red eyes onto Lina. "You should know better than to be provoked so easily, Lina." She gave a sighing gesture and turned away. "You need to learn patience, especially with the Others. There will be many that you will encounter in the future that will be like Camille. You can't go through beating them all up."

Lina crossed her arms again and tried not to pout. "Says who? I beat her down pretty good."

Snickers were heard from Mel and Cathy as they recalled how Camille had sizzled as a result of Lina's flame arrows. Turns out she wasn't as powerful as everybody had thought. By now the whole ordeal was probably all over Turquoise. Lina felt a little satisfied by the thought, now she hoped theOthers will think twice to mess with Lina Inverse!

"In any case," Lilith continued, ignoring Lina's comments and smugged look. "Because of that performance you gave, I think it's best that you stay here to learn your manners before proceeding to MidNighte." She turned back to look at Lina, her brows knitted as one. Maybe she was just talking out of anger and frustration but the younger vampire needed to learn how to restrain herself. Now that her newborn had caused a commotion throughout Turquoise, another's territory, there was nothing she could say to save her from letting Brandus do as he pleased.

Lina gaped. "B-but-but! Lilith! That's not fair!"

Staying there one more night would make her go crazy! She could take waking up as an Undead, but waking up in a place where they fostered humans to be food was something beyond her limits.Staying there for more than another night just speed lighted its way pass her humanitary limitations.

Lilith hmph'ed. "No buts!"

Lina flinched as Lilith's voice raised so suddenly it seemed to pierced through her undead eardrums. She never saw her this angry before. It was a new thing to see since Lilith has always shown calm and patience to everybody.

"You will stay here while Robert and I take care of some business outside of Turquoise," she said. "You must learn how to abide by the rules, Lina, or I will leave you here forever. I mean it." Her expression softened a bit. "I understand everything is new to you, Lina, but you have to learn how to adapt to it. If you cannot,all ofthis willdrive you insane."

Lina lowered her eyes, feeling somewhat ashamed to have disappointed Lilith.

She saw Lilith let out a breath or something like it, and turned slightly to address Brandus, who sat lazily on his velvet chair, "As you wished it, Brandus, you and Cecil can borrow her for the time being. Robert and I shall return in a short while."

"Where are you guys going?" Lina asked curiously.

Lilith looked up in thought, as if contemplating whether or not to tell what was really behind the ever so entertained city of vampire sins.

"It is...an important matter," she only said, looking towards Lina again. "You needn't know about it right away." She then glanced at the two humans, who caught her eyes and immediate looked down from the red eyes. "Shouldn't you two be off to tend to your masters?"

Cathy took a couple of steps back from Lina, still looking down, and fidgetted with her dress. "I um...I'm not sure where to find my Master...uh...I..."

Cecil blinked. "I believe I saw Joseph near the Fountains."

"Oh! Th-thank you!" Cathy gave a quick bow and backed away. "I-I'll be leaving!" With a young human's quickness, she went through the wooden door, her footsteps echoing through the majestic corriders.

"And you?" Lilith tilted her head towards Mel.

Mel peered from behind Lina's back, intimidated by the elder vampires. Although she had a soft voice and asked with such a voice, he also heard sternness within it. He dared not go against such vampires.

"W-well, I-I'm Mistress Lina's human, s-so..." he stammered under the vampire's red-eyes.

Lilith grunted and directed her face towards Brandus. "You gave him to Lina? Again, WHEN was this approved by us? WE are her guardians! How can you possibly think you have the authority to do that!"

Brandus rubbed his ears as Lilith's high pitched voice pierced through his head. He rolled his eyes at her and asked, "Shouldn't you and your protector there be off by now? I need not remind you that it is important to save time."

Lilith clenched her fists and glared at Brandus, eye brows twitching. How could he always brush the subject aside like that! Annoying bastard!

Lilith turned swiftly around, hersnow whiterobe swishing voilently. "Alright! This will be dealt with when we get back!" She walked towards the door, Robert in tow. He opened the door and held itfor her to go first. She took a step forward and turned around. "Be careful." Her eyes flickered towards Lina briefly. With that they exited the main chamber room, with a slight click from the door.

Lina raised one of her eyebrows. Be careful of what? And who was she talking to?

Lina heard a clearing throat from behind her and turned back around to face her supposed captors. Now she had to deal with THIS!

Brandus leaned back into his velvety seat. Smirking, he asked, "So. Now that the protective guardians are gone! How are you liking Turquoise?"

"I could be in a better place," Lina said in a dry tone.

Hearing Lina say that, Mel clung onto her shirt more tighter. Lina glanced at him, wondering what was wrong and found him looking sadly at the floor, or their feet, or something.

Brandus chuckled. "I thought you liked this place. Afterall, you have made a friend."

Lina snorted and crossed her arms. "If you're refering to that old hag I charbroiled not so long ago, a friend like that I can do without."

"Hmm, I was quite impressed you had been able to do that to Camille," Brandus said truthfully. "She has about fifty years over you, y'know."

Lina put a hand on her hip, "Hohoho! That'll teach her to pick on me!"

"Your magical powers are quite something, Lina," Cecil said from behind Brandus.

Lina blinked his way. "Is it that rare to see a vampire using magic?"

"Hmm...not rare," Cecil said. "More like uncommon." He smiled, seeing Lina's curious look. "Well, most who are Turned end up forgetting their human abilities and fully adapting to the vampirical ways. Perhaps it has something to do with time." He looked up as if in thought.

"Orrrr...they had no abilities as a human to begin with," Brandus said. "I, for one, was endowed with no such powers."

"...I see," Lina said, rubbing her chin. It was an interesting fact to know. There were so much she needed to learn about her new nature. It was indeed overwhelming but it is still inevitable to find out what the Creatures of the Night were all about. What other place to learn this than vampire's central city, Turquoise.

Brandus gave Lina a bright smile and said, "Well! We are done for the evening, I believe! We must be off to attend OUR business." He stood up and together with his companion, made their way around Lina towards the exit.

"Wuh? Done? Wait a minute!" Lina protested as the two elder vampires proceeded towards the door.

"Hmm?" they echoed, turning slightly around to look at the younger vampire.

"Aren't you guys gonna explain to me WHY I'm here? And what was Lilith talking about letting you two BORROW me! Or, once again, why I'm here! And where the hell did those two go! Leaving me here!"

Mel gaped at Lina's actions towards the two elder vampires. None whatsoever, that goes for both vampires and double for humans, would ever even dare the thought of raising their voices to these two. And here she was, shouting, yelling, pointing, everything possibly offensive. She was the darest newborn or vampire for that matter that he's ever met.

But Brandus chuckled at her reactions. "My, aren't you a curious one!"

"This isn't funny!" Lina shrieked, getting pissed by the second. "You two BEAT me down, sucked me dried, and took me to this place! Where, by the way, I woke up with a HUMAN beside me andaaghh!" Lina was cut off as Brandus' fangs was upon her throat. She once again felt her blood coarsing through her body into his mouth.

Just as she thought she was going to black out again, he let go and laughed. Dizzy, and not to mention queasy, she fell to her knees and clutched her punctured throat. Mel yelped in surprised and tried to support her from falling face down onto the marble floor.

"Yum! Young blood!" Brandus said, laughing. "Don't worry, little one, all will be explained in due time! But at the moment, please, enjoy your stay at our humble home!"

"Oh and for your information," Cecil said all of a sudden, holding the door open for Brandus. "HE is the only one who beat you down, sucked you dry, and suggested to keep you in this place." He gave her a wide smile, "Have a good evening!" and winked as the door slid closed.

With that, the door closed with the same click it did when Lilith and Robert exited.

"Ugh, I think I'm going to throw up," Lina said holding her mouth. Only problem was there was nothing in her stomach to throw up, so she just laid down on her stomach on the cold marble tiles, not that her dead skin actually felt it.

"M'lady! M'lady, please hang on!" Mel frantically tried to roll her over to her back. Her being a vampire also meant her body was already dead and that meant it doubled its weight. Mel struggled, being a small boy still, with no help from Lina at all, he managed to roll her slowly onto her back.

Her eyes closed, a cold hand on her forehead, she groaned. Mel noticed the dark circles under her eyes, it meant that her body was reacting to the second closest to being paler. Being a vampire, her body was already drained of blood, the only thing to show that she needed any bodily fluid were the dark circles forming under her eyes. This Mel knew well, growing up in Turquoise, he was to learn vampire's bodies and anatomy, their reactions to certain situations, to certain liquids.

Being a vampire did not mean that they all had to stick to a blood diet. They can drink any liquids, that includes inedible water or any liquid poison, although why they'd do that is beyond Mel's comprehension, but they would still live off of it but it would not satisfy their thirst. Even "dead" blood was not enough sometimes to satisfy the thirst. The only thing that would is of course, the human "living" blood. Something in human blood makes it the ultimate food for these nightly creatures.

Mel took a small pocket knife from his pockets and knick his arms enough so that blood can flow through his slitted smooth skin.

Lina was mumbling to herself, her eyes still closed. She did not see or noticed in the slightest that Mel moved his blooding arms over her face so that the blood can drop into her moving mouth.

As a drop of blood drip into her mouth, her red eyes instantly popped open, solid and eerily slitted, just like any other vampires. Her fangs protruded through her upper lip as her elongated tongue reached for the source of the flowing blood.

Mel winced at the pain on his wrist. It hurted more to give blood through the wrist vein rather than the neck, at least for him, it was. The veins on his arms popped up more than it did on his neck so when blood is roughly sucked out of his veins, it always felt like it would pop up from under his skin. He heard a gasp coming from Lina and his arm suddenly dropped.

Lina was back to normal, like magic, the dark circles were gone, she looked healthier than not a few seconds ago. Her solid red eyes were glossy ruby red again, her fangs disappeared, her human tongue licked off a drop of blood from the side of her mouth.

"Mel..." She whispered, maybe more to herself than to the boy, and hung her head. "Why did you do that?"

Tying his wound with a piece of white cloth, he looked at Lina with a quizzical expression. "What do you mean? You needed it so I gave it to you."

Lina sweatdropped and once again fell onto her stomach. "I give up..." She will never understand this stupid city of sin! L-sama knows what ELSE goes on around this place!

She can bitch and complain about it all she wanted but truth be told, she felt much better.

Mel helped her up, even though he knew she did not needed it, and walked over the door to open it for her.

As she walked passed him, he heard her say, "I guess I really need to learn about the things around here, huh?"

She stepped outside into the somewhat crowded hallway. It was weird to her because in the chamber room, it was dead quiet, as though the people in the hallway winked awake, just a few seconds ago, again.

"Oh, it's not too complicated around here, m'lady," Mel said and walked beside Lina. "Just an ordinary home for all of us vampires and humans."

Lina grunted. "Easy for you to say, you were raised here! That's the biggestproblemI find hard to adapt to."

Mel smiled an innocent smile.

Lina looked around the crowd, a mixture of both vampires and humans hanging around casually in the mansion. "Are we allowed outside? Why are they all hanging around inside for?"

Mel looked up in thought. "Well...the vampires can but...it's very unsafe, especially for the newborns. We humans are really not allowed outside unless Master Brandus and Master Cecil is okay with it." He stopped to side step a bigger human rushing the opposite way. He stuck his little self closer to Lina.

Seeing Lina's curious look, he continued, "You must understand, m'lady, that the Night belongs to every Creature and to no Creature at all. It is like a No-Creature's land."

Lina raised an eyebrow, "Meaning?" It was really amazing to not understand the words coming from a nine year old's mouth. He may be young but he knew his stuff here.

"Hmm...meaning, if a newborn vampire is to step outside of Turquoise, a vampire territory, into the Night where there are no protection, any Creature is allowed to hunt them, kill them," Mel said. "It's like a lion cub being released into the wilderness, leaving its territory, it is in danger of other predators hunting it. A free-for-all, you can say."

Lina hmm'ed in thought. Interesting...

"Only those with much confidence their abilities would dare to go outside," Mel said. "Which reminds me, m'lady, Master Brandus brought you from the outside, didn't he? Were you outside by yourself all this time?"

Lina sweatdropped as Mel's blue eyes sparkled of stars of admiration.

"Well...not alone really," she said modestly. "I had a few...comrades with me at the time." Who ditched me once they knew I wasn't any use any more!

"So Mistress Lilith and Master Robert were with you all that time? No, that couldn't be, or else Master Brandus wouldn't have been able to touch you," Mel said.

Lina blinked. "What?"

Mel looked at Lina and blinked too. "What, what, m'lady?"

"What do you mean Brandus wouldn't have been able to touch me?" Lina asked.

"Well, according to MidNighte's rules, a vampire cannot touch another's newborn," Mel explained. "Unless you are released from Mistress Lilith's hold, he cannot get away with it."

"But he did! Lilith didn't even say anything to him! What's with that!" Lina exclaimed and put her hands on her hips.

"Er..."

"If that's the rules then why didn't he get in trouble with Lilith? Instead I have to be here for PUNISHMENT!" she continued to shout to no one in particular.

Mel looked around, embarassed of her getting weird looks from passerby.

"M'lady," he whispered to Lina, trying to bring her down from the window sill she jumped up on all of a sudden. She was shouting out of the window and into the Night. "M'lady, please calm down, you are drawing attention..." He pulled on the edge of her shirt.

"I don't care! I don't care!" she threw a tantrum like a little girl.

They wrestled with one another, the boy trying to pull down the vampire down from the window when both of heard a chuckle not far away. They stopped instantly and looked where the laughter came from.

It belonged to a red-eyed vampire with rugged black hair, tied behind his back.

"Mistress Lina!" Cathy appeared from behind him, a punctured wound on her neck. Her face lit up when she saw Lina. The vampire in front of her noticed and hmph'ed.

"So you are the newborn that everyone is talking about?" a deep voice came out from the vampire.

Lina let go of Mel, as did he let go of her. They straightened themselves, Mel stood behind Lina.

"Yeah, so?" Lina said. She hoped he wasn't going to pick a fight with her too.

He looked her up and down, to the point of rudeness in Lina's opinion, thenshrugged. "I don't see what's the fuss about. Just because you beat Camille."

Lina narrowed her eyes. L-sama! Were all vampires this conceited? She crossed her arms across her chest. "If you don't see what the fuss if about, then beat it, buddy! I'm not in the mood to beat down another vampire!"

Mel tugged on Lina's shirt. "M-m'lady, please contain yourself, don't you remember what Mistress Lilith told you?"

Lina's eyes twitched. That's right! If this happened again, she'll leave me here forever!

The vampire smirked. "Able to use only force and violence, it shows what a commoner you were before you were Turned."

A big vein popped on Lina's forehead. "Grr! Why you!"

The vampire felt a tug on his black over coat and looked at Cathy. "What?"

"Please Master Joseph," she said softly, her brown eyes unable to meet his red ones. "I beg you, please leave her be...she-she isn't like the Others. She was very nice to me." She cluthed his coat tighter.

He grunted. "You don't need to protect her so much, Cathy. I wasn't going to do anything to her. Now let me go, I have something more important to attend to!" He yanked his coat out of her hands and turned away with an annoyed look on his face.

"M-master Joseph," she said lightly, looking at his retreating back in the crowd.

"Er...sorry, did we get you trouble?" Lina asked, somewhat guilty to put the girl through that...whatever THAT was.

Cathy turned herself towards Lina and shook her head with a small smile. "He is always like that. Don't worry, Mistress Lina, he's not like Mistress Camille. That's just his way to speak with the new ones."

Lina sweatdropped upon hearing that. "Gee...that's a great way to make new friends, huh?"

Cathy blinked. "It is? I don't think so because he really doesn't have many friends...I'm usually the only one around him all th time."

Lina sighed, or gave the gesture, and pushed her red hair back from her face. "It was sarcasm, Cathy!"

"Oh! Haha, I had not caught on," she said and giggled. "It's just every vampire in Turqouise are serious, Mistress Lina, it is very confusing if you are joking or not."

Lina rolled her eyes. "This Mistress and m'lady thing HAS to go! It's really annoying me!"

"B-but we have to address you that way, m'lady," Mel said.

Cathy shook her head in agreement. "It's to show respect."

Mel nodded. "Or else we will be punished for not doing so!"

Lina grunted. "Then just Miss is far more than enough! And if anybody wants to pick on you two for THAT, then tell them to come to ME!"

Cathy and Mel looked at one another and shrugged. They turned simultaneously toward Lina and smiled, nodding in agreement. "Then we will call you Miss Lina!" They giggled as if it were a joke.

"You guys..." Lina rubbed her temples. Yes, a very long night, indeed.

Author's notes: OMG! is it late again! AND short (two parts AGAIN!)! geez! I'm slackin'! But-but! skool's givin' me a hard time! PLUS work! dear readers, please forgive me! I swear next chapter wont take long! AND it'll contain more story developement (yknow, continuing with the D thing)! oooh and i'll put in some character developments too! tee hee! which one would youreaders like me todevelopemore first!as always THANKS TO ALL THE GREAT REVIEWS AND COMMENTS! IT KEEPS ME GOING!

Proles Draco: I love to satisfy my readers in any way with the story line, however, because of this particular storyline, I can't have Lina meet up with the others(Gourry, Amelia, Zel, etc.)YET! SORRY! but but but! i swear at the end of this story i'll throw in something between Lina and Gourry! Just for you! PLEASE COME BACK! don't get me wrong i'm a BIG fan of L/G coupling!


	10. Chapter 7part II

Slayers in the Night 

Chapter 7: In the Gist of it All part II

XXXXXXXXX

"Father Marcus!" a high hissed came from a shadowed bush.

"Hush Mirna!" came a whispered voice from the bush beside.

"This is impossible, Father," came a monotonous voice from the shadows. "Sneaking into Turqouise won't be that easy."

A sigh came from the bush as a priest, garbed with a white robe and golden hems, stood up. Matching blue eyes appeared from the shadows as the two Hunters emerged.

"Luka is right," the priest said. "This isn't going to be easy..."

After leaving the scene of what seems to be the aftermath of Lina's battle, they blindedly followed the crimson glowing cross the priest now held gently in his hands. According to the priest, the holy item linked itself to Lina's Undead heart through the cross-shaped scar, thus making it possible for him to manipulate it with his own powers, making the invisible link glow blood red and visible again.

At least, that's what the two Hunters summed up. They never heard of such abilities, especially from priests. They personally preferred physical abilities rather than magical. They can manipulate a stake and silver swords and knives any Night, but magic was certainly not their forte.

Mirna crossed her arms over her chest. "'This isn't going to be easy' is an understatement, Father. Do you know how much danger we are in right now? If any vamps were to see us here, we're already dead."

Which was not a bit exagerated. Any Hunter worth their salt would know Turquoise was one of the lands where most vampires reside...vampires with human slaves. They knew that, as a solid rule, any human found around Turquoise territory is up for grabs. They also learned that any humans captured is made to whatever the vampires tell them to be, whether it be a slave or living blood packets. As humans, they found it appalling that any human lowered into that situation would just accept it. Both of them would rather die.

The one thing that is common in Turquoise and the wilderness is that the most powerful shall dominate. Survival of the strongest was their rule. They heard through Hunter rumors that hundreds of years back, Turquoise used to be inhabitable. There were no order, no rules, just pure chaos where the strongest dominated the weaker...humans were usually the weakest...

After so much time that passed, and as such it was only a rumor, they were not sure if it was ever true. But they did not want to take the risk to find out. If anything, they knew one thing about any vampires anywhere is true: humans were just their prey.

Luka gave a small sigh, letting his hands slide off the rough brick wall. "No secret entrance anywhere around the castle. Climbing it is impossible." His blue eyes roamed the wall, which stretched to what seemed like the sky. "This place is designed with only a front entrance."

"And THAT is definately out of the question!" Mirna quickly exclaimed.

The priest rubbed his temples as if a migraine had started to spread. He is so close, yet it seemed to him like it's still so far. "No one is suggesting any such thing, Mirna. Please calm yourself."

The Hunters blinked. They never saw Marcus so distorted. He had always held a calm demeanor and there seemed to always be an aura about him.

"Father, may I ask," Luka started, "why is this so important to you? This young girl you're supposed to find, is she family?"

Marcus sighed and brushed his light blonde hair back. "Not exactly..."

"Then why are you so determined to enter this hell area?" Mirna asked bluntly as she leaned herself against the cold wall. "Something tells me it's not a simple finding some girl mission anymore."

A troubled look crossed Marcus' face. His moss green eyes looked at the ground. "I'm sorry. I guess it no longer is..." He then looked up at the starless night. Something was nagging within him and he wasn't sure what it was. A bad feeling, a priest's intuition, although it sounds fairly silly, was the best way to describe his pursue into Turquoise. It was ever since he met...

"Don't tell me it's because of that vamp!" Mirna exclaimed with wide eyes.

Marcus' forehead wrinkled in thought. "I can't explain it but...it is...something about her makes me want to find her." He reflected on his words and shook his head. "At the time when those two elder vampires appeared, I hadn't wanted to do what I did, but that was the only way to get out of that situation easily."

Luka nodded in agreement. "Considering that they were elders, I was surprised they hadn't attacked us still."

"I am doing this for my own benefit," the priest said all of a sudden. "I'd understand if you two don't want to follow me. This path does stray from what we first agreed to do."

Both Hunters looked down in thought.

"I'm...going with you," Mirna said. "I want to see what this Turquoise place is all about..." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away.

Luka nodded. "Then I will follow you too. Afterall, we've been through all this together, we might as well stick together till the end."

The priest's face remained neutral, neither frowning nor smiling. He finally nodded after looking at the two Hunters. "I understand."

Mirna put her hands on her hips as she turned to look at the castle. "Well...first step is to find a way into this place."

The three stayed silent as they thought of a way to enter the castle.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" a deep voice sounded from the shadows.

The two Hunters whipped around to see a red-eyed, rugged black haired vampire. Mirna clutched her wooden stake tightly, Luka gripped his blessed sword, the priest looked at the vampire calmly.

"What are humans doing around Turquoise willingly?" the vampire said as he took a couple of steps towards them.

Sweat slid down their forehead. They could tell this one wasn't as old as the other two but strong nonetheless. The two could take him on equally if his eyes weren't set on the white-garbed priest. Mirna and Luka glanced at Marcus. Any vampire would want the blood of a pure holy man.

That'll cause a problem, they thought as they turned back to look at the vampire.

He smirked. "Hunters? Such amateurs. Well, shall we have some fun then?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Y'know, they ARE amateurs," a voice said. "They're even worst than yo--mmph!"

D squeezed his left hand shut as he reined his dark mare away from the shadowed cliff that overlooked the castle.

"Eee--mmph--gh--agh!" came from his left hand. D loosened his left hand. "Ya tryin' to kill me, D!" It huffed and puffed air. "So what are ya gonna do now? Looks like those amateurs are gonna get themselves killed rather than gettin' themselves into this place."

D didn't reply has he galloped towards the scene.

"Hey, hey! You're not tryin' to get yerself revealed already, are ya!" Left-hand exclaimed with his raspy voice.

"I wasn't trying to conceal myself in the first place," D replied.

"Argh! Haven't you ever heard of doing things the easy way!" Left-hand shouted frustratedly.

D didn't reply again as he slowed his horse.

Left-hand grunted. "S'bout time you started to listen to me!"

"It's almost over," D said, looking through the shadows at the battle scene.

"Which isn't surprising," it said dryly. "What's your point?"

"The only entrance into Turquoise is the front," he said shortly.

"I'm not gettin' any younger with your short explanations, D!"

He didn't reply as he saw the two young Hunters drop onto the ground.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"And so, Master Brandus and Master Cecil restored Turquoise and made it habitable again," Mel said and took a deep breath.

Lina's eyebrow twitched. To her dismay, the two humans had promised to entertain her until she had to rest again. Turquoise's history was hardly entertaining, in her opinion.

All they were really doing is sitting around the main hall, which was grandiosely decorated, and telling stories about Turquoise. Lina wasn't sure what was so fascinating about this place, especially for the humans. With these two, Lina couldn't get any sort of understanding because they had been raised here.

"How about telling me about going in and out of this place?" Lina said dryly.

The two humans blinked. "Huh?"

"What I really wanna know is how I can get in and out of this place," Lina said.

"Oh..." Cathy said softly. "I don't think going out of Turquoise is a good idea, Miss Lina."

Mel nodded vigorously with agreement. "That's right! It's dangerous out there!"

Lina sweatdropped. By the way he acted, if she hadn't been out there already, she would have thought she would disappear the minute she stepped out of this place.

"What's so dangerous out there?" Lina asked. "I came from out there, if you already forgotten."

"Yeah...looking half dead," Mel said, sadly recalling the mental picture in his head.

"Of course, if you weren't dead already, that is," Cathy said. "All the vampires here thought you weren't going to make it through the Night. More than half dehydrated like that, it was really dangerous."

Lina snorted. "Say that to the one who did that to me." She crossed her arms over her chest heatedly. "I didn't asked to be brought here like that, y'know!"

Cathy gave an apologetic smile. "What me meant was beyond Turquoise, anything can happen. There are no rules amongst vampires beyond Turquoise. That's why Mistress Lilith wasn't able to say much of anything to Master Brandus."

"That's right," Mel said in agreement. "It was partly her fault for leaving you alone like that."

"Mel..." Cathy hushed him.

Lina waved her hands. "Okay, okay, it's dangerous out there, I got it already. All I wanted to know was how to get in and out of this place. Doesn't mean I'm going to go out, y'know. Lilith already forbid me to do anything like that." The thought of disobeying her again gave Lina the creeps. "I don't wanna stay here forever..."

"That's right! I don't want to either!" Mel exclaimed happily. "And wherever Mistre..er...Miss Lina go, I go too!"

Lina grunted. "Don't count on it, kid. After all this blows over, I have to think over what to do with you."

Mel's mouth gaped. "But-but!"

Lina waved his expression away. "Don't act so surprise. You knew I didn't like the idea of this in the first place."

Mel's expression saddened. "I understand, Miss Lina..."

Cathy cleared her throat. "In any case, to answer your curiousity, Miss Lina, getting into Turquoise is quite easy. There are no securities, none whatsoever."

"Confident in our safety, aren't we?" Lina asked no one in particular.

Cathy looked up in thought. "Well...something like that...because no matter who or what comes into Turquoise, Master Brandus shall be notified immediately. Others know the unspoken rule of stepping into vampire territory so we hardly see those who choose to disregard the rule."

"How's it possible to notify him immediately? I thought you said there were no securities?" Lina asked.

"There are no securities does not mean there are no watchers, Miss Lina," Cathy said. "With this many of us, no one could slip by without notice."

Lina grunted. "And I ask again, confident, aren't we? Well, what about during the daytime?"

"We humans keep watch during the daytime," Cathy replied. "And there are some vampires who does too."

"Hm..I see," Lina said.

Mel looked at Lina suspiciously. "You're awfully curious about going in and out of Turquoise, aren't you, Miss Lina?"

Lina sweatdropped and looked away. "I-I'm just curious! Is it wrong to find out how safe I am in a place I no nothing about!" She crossed her arms over her chest and hmph'ed. "Besides, I still don't know about going out of this place anyway."

Cathy nodded. "That's right. And it is nearly impossible."

Lina blinked. "Eh? Why?"

"Well, for you, I meant," Cathy said. "Without Master Brandus' or Mistress Lilith approval, none of us are to let you step out of Turquoise."

"Ehhh! Seriously!" Lina exclaimed and stood up abruptly. "So I'm being kept watched by two kids that seems too matured for their ages!"

Cathy giggled. "You're funny, Miss Lina."

Lina grunted and sat back down with a thump on the velvet cusion. "It's not funny on my part! I am ultimately bored and besides that little incident with what's her face, nothing's happened!"

"Cathy!" a young human girl slammed the many doors of the main hall. "Something's happened!"

Lina rolled her eyes. As if on cue, she thought to herself.

Cathy stood up suddenly and made her way towards the girl. "What happened?"

"Your master," the girl said breathlessly.

"Master Joseph?" Cathy said quizzically.

The girl nodded vigorously. "He just came back from the outside! Brought some human Hunters with him!"

Cathy's eyes widen with amazement as she rushed out of the door, the other girl rushing out behind her.

Lina stood up with a smooth motion. She glanced at Mel with curiousity. "What's with all the commotion?"

Mel looked at Lina sideways as they made their way towards the door. "We hardly ever see human Hunters around Turquoise territory. They usually know better than that. Actually, a few of the vampires and humans here were Hunters before they settled themselves here."

"I see," Lina said as she stepped out into the red-carpeted hallway.

Lina squinted as she saw a crowd at the end of the candle-lit hallway. "Gotta see who the idiots are."

Mel nodded absent-mindedly as they went closer towards the commotion.

"There's nothing but humans in the crowd," Lina commented as they stood a little ways from the crowd.

"Yes, well, vampires could care less who brings what in here. It sort of happens almost every night, Miss Lina," the boy said as he stood on tip toe.

"Get away from me! Let go of us!" they heard a high pitched voice exclaim.

The ring spread a little bit as they heard two thuds.

Lina blinked. That voice...

"Get away from us!"

Small shrieks sounded from various humans as they broke away from the crowd.

Lina caught sight of the captives and gasped. "You guys!"

Humans spread away from her as Lina's voice boomed throughout the hallway.

The vampire, Joseph, merely glanced at her. Cathy was looking at the Hunters gashes and wounds.

Mirna and Luka, looking less than Hunters, whipped their heads to place their eyes on Lina. Maybe it was her imagination but Lina thought she saw a hint of relief when their blue eyes took sight of her. The priest, Marcus, looked completely relieved when he saw her.

"What are you guys doing here!" Lina said as she walked closer to the humans. "And why is the priest the only one that doesn't look beaten down?"

Lina almost snickered as she took in the whole picture. The two Hunters were gashed and bruised, blood was all over their outfit. The priest however was quite the opposite. His snow white robes were still snow white with the golden hems. He just stood by his comrades calmly as the two clutched at their wounds.

Joseph grunted. "Because he didn't resist. Knows what's good for him. You know these humans?" He gave her a disgusted face.

Lina crossed her arms around her chest. "Yeah, they're traitors that left me to get captured to this place."

She placed her hands on her hips and hmph'ed. "Karma hurts, doesn't it?" She eyed the two Hunters critically.

Mirna swayed as her eye lids seems to grow heavily. Cathy kept her from falling down on her face. "Are you okay, miss? Master Joseph, I think you went a little overboard this time."

"They didn't even put up a good fight," he replied dryly. "Amatuer Hunters are always ahead of thier league."

Cathy's eyes knitted with concern. "I'll take them to heal their wounds or else they're going to suffer from blood loss."

Other humans helped with the two wounded Hunters as they were dragged away from the crowd. The crowd slowly dissipated, the show having been over.

Joseph snorted. "I don't understand why she's so concerned about the humans that comes in here!" Without a response to his comment, he swiftly turned away and walked the opposite direction.

"Where are they being taken?" Marcus asked with concern.

Lina shrugged lightly. "Beats me." She looked down at Mel expectantly.

"Well, they're being taken to healers," he replied accordingly. "And probably to rest."

"That answer your question?" Lina looked at the priest.

Marcus nodded slightly. "Should I...follow them?"

Mel shrugged. "You can do whatever you want, mister."

A confused look crossed the priest's face and looked at Lina.

Lina shrugged as she turned away from the spot the crowd was. "You heard him. If you wanna follow them I suggest you do it before they disappear into the many, many rooms they have here. Believe me, without a guide, I'd be lost around here."

He took a few steps towards the direction his companions were taken. He looked back at Lina and said, "What will happen to us?"

"What do you mean, mister?" Mel asked. "Nothing'll happen to any of you unless you want it to."

"I see..." he gave Lina a last glance and turned away.

After seeing the golden cross of the priest's coat retreating into the dim hallway, Lina walked away, feeling a bit tired.  
Two shadow-figured occupied the open space of the dark forest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Dunpeal," a deep voice said in a confirming tone.

The second shadow nodded. "No doubt. But this is too close to Turquoise."

"For a Hunter at that level, it wouldn't matter," the first shadow said.

"But a Dunpeal wouldn't be senseless enough to enter the front entrance," the second said.

"No...I don't think so. Lilith, this is not good. Either way, it's confirmed that a Dunpeal has targeted Turquoise."

"I know, Robert" Lilith replied with a sigh. "What with the entertainment happening in a couple of nights, this might cause trouble."

"It's more like it will definately cause trouble," Robert said.

Lilith didn't reply as she looked around the Night sky, an orange glow peeking out from the outlines of the mountains.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Notes: Yea, sorry again for the delay everybody! I sorta forced this chapter out too, sowwie! Maybe after a side story, I might have to take a longer break from this story, too many things going on! truly truly sorry everybody!


	11. Chapter 8

Slayers in the Night

Chapter 8: Mission in the Night

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Father Marcus was confused. And it wasn't the many corridors and rooms that had exactly the same carvings that did him so. It was mainly the atmosphere around this place they were supposedly held captive. Marcus woke up to darkness that surrounded everything in his room but the table which held a candle lighting his meal.

Before he gave to the drowsiness which settled in after all the events took place the Night before, he saw that Luka and Mirna's wounds were well treated in the room next to his. He didn't see Lina or any other vampires again, presumably because of the rising sun he saw through the thick black curtains. Only human healers were in the room treating the two Hunter's gash and bruise. The human girl named Cathy left after the healers arrived and she was reassured that she was no longer needed. With that, he was shown to the room he now occupied and without knowing it, he was able to fall asleep, dreaming of black clouds.

Marcus now made his way towards their room, which was literally two steps away. He looked around the hallway before entering and saw that the rooms were a couple of inches away from each other, each door having the same exact designs on them. He wondered briefly how these humans navigate themselves around the big castle.

When he entered the room, he saw his two companions still sleeping soundly. The human named Cathy was cleaning up what the healers seemed to leave behind, used and bloody bandages, etc.

"Good...evening," Marcus called out to her as she did not seem to notice him enter the room.

She looked up at him and gave a friendly smile. "Good evening, Father. Your companions seem to be doing fine, although, I do not suggest moving them around for a couple of evenings."

Marcus nodded. "I see. Thank you for taking care of them."

She nodded with the same smile as she went to clear out dirty dishes on a table that looked exactly like the one in his room.

"I'm sorry that Master Joseph was so rough on them last evening, Father," she said. "He must have been in a bad mood."

"Joseph..." Marcus repeated. "...is the vampire's name?"

Cathy nodded. "Yes...and my master."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "Master? Does every human have masters in this place?"

"Oh no," Cathy replied. "That's impossible. There are so many humans here. It's mainly whichever vampire wants or needs one."

"I...see," the priest said. 

"By the way," Cathy said before she exited the room. "Feel free to walk around, Father. But don't enter any room with any vampires."

She gave a small laugh. "With your blood, every vampire would love to have it. But if you're looking for Miss Lina, go all the way down the hallway and you'll know you've arrived." She exited the room with a tray full of dirty bandages and dishes.

Marcus sighed and sat on the chair by the head of the bed Luka was laying on. They looked pale, probably because of the blood loss but being Hunters, their bodies were probably used to it.

Luka groaned slightly as an eye slowly opened. "So was this...exactly how you planned it to happen, Father?"

"Of course not, Luka," the priest said guiltily. "It's just you two put up more of a fight before I could stop you."

Luka gave a small laugh to which he winced slightly afterwards. "Yeah, that was one hell of a fight I've had in a long time."

A grunt came from Mirna's bed. "You can say that again."

Her head turned slightly towards Marcus. "Why don't you go and find out what we're beaten up to be here for, Father, and let's get the hell outta here." She winced as she turned her head back to the same position. "This place kinda creeps me out."

"Yeah," Marcus replied. "I'll be seeing you two later."

"Alright," the two Hunters replied simultaneously.

The priest exited the room and went 'all the way down the hallway' like he was told. But with the sidestepping and the dodging of the crowd that had grown in an instant, he was having a major trouble going all the way down the hallway.

XXXXXXXXXXX

"Hold on one minute," Lina said and waved a hand. "Dunpeal?"

Since the beginning of the new evening, she had been informed that Lilith and Robert had returned from wherever they went. She was literally dragged out of her bed by Mel and into the main chamber where the four elder vampires stood waiting for her. Lilith and Robert were wearing black robes, presumably from the Night before, and stood next to Brandus and Cecil.

Lilith nodded. "A half-human, half-vampire Hunter. So far there has been only a record of one."

"And...this Dunpeal is supposed to be a very strong Hunter?" Lina asked.

To this question, Cecil nodded. "He is said to have derived from Dracula, brother to our dark Lord, Alucard. It's been said that this very Dunpeal was the one who sealed Dracula away a long time ago. That is why our Lord is the only one watching over MidNighte."

"Cecil, we're not trying to teach her our whole history just yet," Brandus said boredly.

"Okay...and he's targeting Turquoise now?" Lina continued to ask. "As a whole? Or...anybody in particular, perhaps the master of the domain?" With this she glanced at Brandus.

Brandus caught her look and gave her a chuckle. "My, aren't you the sharp dagger in the box?"

Lina shrugged modestly. "It only makes sense if this Dunpeal or whatever were to think that taking down the main boss will stop the Others here in Turquoise too."

"The only thing is," Robert said. "We're pretty sure the Dunpeal isn't working on his own."

Lina raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Officially, the Dunpeal does not attack on his own for no apparent reason," Cecil replied. "He is hired to do as ordered."

"By Lycans?" Lina said curiously.

Lilith nodded. "We assume. Since there has been no sign of unneccessary slaughter of the vampires in Turquoise and there has been heavy traces of the Dunpeal outside. If he were ordered to kill off every vampire in sight, he would have done so by now. The Lycans probably does not know that taking down the apparent 'master' of Turquoise affects MidNighte very little rather than destroying Turquoise as a whole."

Lina mulled the information over. "So you just want me to gather information on the Dunpeal's traces?"

Lilith nodded again. "See what you can find from the vampires that went outside of Turquoise last night. There couldn't be so many. The human of yours should be able to tell you something."

Lina nodded as she turned to make her way towards the door.

Once the door clicked itself closed, Lilith gave the gesture of sighing. "There's so many things happening. Damn you and your city, Brandus."

Brandus laughed. "It isn't so bad, is it? You two did 'grew up' here."

"So we didn't have time to tell her about the entertainment again," Cecil said, smiling.

"That's sort of our last concern right now," Robert commented.

Brandus sobered and looked at Lilith and Robert. "You are certain of what you told us?"

Lilith nodded. "No doubt about it. The Dunpeal is looking to get into Turquoise."

"If he didn't already find a way," Robert said, grunting.

Brandus brushed his hair back casually. "Well, let's hope she comes through with something."

The other three nodded in agreement as they lingered their eyes on the door Lina had just exited.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lina came out of the chamber room to see Mel still standing outside the door waiting for her. He looked up with a bright smile as he saw her.

"I thought I told you not to wait for me?" Lina said with a frown.

"Well...I didn't know what else to do," Mel replied. "Cathy was busy in the kitchen."

"Whatever," Lina said and started down the hallway. "Well, come on, I've got a mission to run."

Mel raised his eyebrow. "What mission, Miss Lina?"

Lina shook her head slightly. "Nevermind. Do you know where that Joseph is?"

Mel looked up in thought. "Um...Cathy would know, I think."

"Well, let's go find her first," Lina said.

Mel nodded and walked a few steps up to take the lead because he knew Lina didn't know the way to the kitchen.

"So how are the two Hunters that came in last evening?" Lina asked.

"Hmm...from what Cathy said, they're okay, they weren't in a life threatening situation to begin with, she said," Mel replied, dodging a human plowing his way somewhere.

"I beg to differ," Lina said as she herself sidestepped a vampire plowing her way face on. "That Joseph seemed to be eternally in a bad mood or something."

"Well, he wasn't always like that," Mel said. "He used to be kinder to me and Cathy before he took her as his human."

"Sounds impossible from my point of view, but I'll take your word for it. What about that snouty Camille?" Lina asked. "You can't argue with me there that SHE isn't always in a bad mood."

"Well, she's a different story," Mel said. "She seems to be extremely attached to Master Brandus for some reason and when she heard that he took in a human, she somewhat flipped." He giggled childishly.

Lina raised an eyebrow at the giggle and shove a laugh down her throat. She didn't want to lead him on that talking about others behind their backs was a good thing, although it was mighty entertaining.

"Wait a minute," Lina said all of a sudden. "That Brandus has a human too?"

Mel nodded. "Yes, he took her as his own about three years ago from what I heard. Her name is Regina. Well, at least that's what we all call her. She's weird, though."

Lina lifted an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the way she laughs, for instance," he said. "'Creeps any Creature out from a mile way' is what Cathy always says. She doesn't know who she really is either, she suffers from amnesia. Cathy told me Master Brandus found her in the forest."

Lina felt a chill down her Undead body for some reason. "I-I see...f-for some reason, I don't wanna meet her..."

"Huh? Why not, Miss Lina?" Mel said, looking at her.

"Haha...no reason," Lina said with a sweatdrop smile on her face.

Lina blinked as she saw a crowd in the middle of the hallway. "What's happening here?"

Mel stopped to scan the crowd then he hid behind Lina's back. "They're all vampires, Miss Lina."

Lina grunted. "And they're all females." Lina put her hands on her hips. "HEY!" She shouted which echoed in the hallway. Everything seemed to stop as the vampires turned to look at her.

She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn't feel any threat from all these nobodies. They all didn't seem to feel older than fifty years old. The more powerful is more dominant, she thought.

"What are you all doing?" She asked with a friendly smile.

On the other hand, the other vampires held a stone-cold face as they backed away from the object of their 'affection.'

In this case, it was the priest that was panting and holding his robes together. His face was pale and his hair was all in disarray as he stood up and ran over to Lina.

Lina nodded in understanding. No vampire can resist a priest's pure blood. Very sinless, very tasty.

Lina gave them all a wink. "Hey, he's a priest, let's keep him pure, huh?"

Some young looking vampire pouted. One said, "But we only wanted a taste..."

A very seductive looking one nodded and brushed her blonde hair back. "Yes, we couldn't resist his scent."

Several other heads bobbed up and down. Marcus seemed to pale even whiter.

Lina gave a small laugh and said, "Yes, but if you do anything to him, you'll have to answer to his two guardians."

A snort came from the group. "They couldn't even beat Joseph."

"Yes, they couldn't beat Joseph doesn't mean they won't be able to beat any of you weaklings," Lina said, getting a tad bit aggravated.  
"Be good little vampires and shoo along now."

A few actually left. The majority that stayed frowned. "How dare you?! Who do you think you are acting all superior?!"

Lina frowned in turn and clenched her hands. "Hey! Don't piss me off, the lot of you! Cuz you all KNOW what I'll do to you."

A few more backed down. The said lot was even more fueled.

"Don't be so arrogant, bitch!" one said.

"You're not the only powerful one in Turquoise!" another said.

Lina narrowed her slitted eyes as she raised her hands to summon her magic. 

Mel pushed Marcus out to the side line quickly as the quarrel seemed to worsen.

"Oh yeah!? You all asked for this!!" a ball of fire formed in her hands. "FIREBALL!" Lina whipped the fireball at the group, which dissipated the moment they saw the fireball hurtled at them.

A couple emerged from her shadows to which she jumped away to see a short knife hurtling towards her. She caught it and hurtle it back. It must've hit one of them as she heard a scream as one of them melted into the shadows.

She saw two rushing towards her and she stopped in her track. 

"FLARE ARROW!" The flame arrows made their way towards its target and caught them. Both of them were aflamed as they melted into the shadows, screaming.

Another short knife came flying from the shadows and hit Lina's arm. She winced and landed in front of Mel and Marcus. She saw several knives hurtling towards them.

"VALIS WALL!" she pulled up a wall which stopped all the knives right in front of their faces.

"I'll tell you one thing about my magic!" Lina shouted out. "You will never be able to penetrate through my defense and I can always do this!" She pulled the knife from her arm and threw it towards the vampire. It glowed green before hitting its target. The vampire screamed and took refuge in the shadows like all the others.

Lina snorted as she brung the magical defense down. "Newbies. Messing with the wrong person!"

The priest took her arm and looked at her wound, which started to close immediately, leaving only traces of blood on her sleeve. Lina took her arm back and said, "Not a big deal. Now that I've blown off some steam, let's go looking for Cathy now!" She smiled widely and started walking.

"Umm...Miss Lina," Mel called out. "You're going the wrong way."

Lina halted and turned back almost mechanically. "Gosh, there's only two ways to go, why do I always go the wrong way?" She scratched her head as Mel took the lead once again, wondering if being Undead chipped away a little of her brain away.

Marcus snickered quietly to himself as he followed Mel.

XXXXXXXXXXX

A tall human woman, with long raven hair, walked lazily around the hallway as she came across about four vampires, dragging their injured selves somewhere.

"What happened to all of you?" she asked out of curiousity.

"That damn bitch!" a charcoiled one snarled.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Which one?"

"The new one!" another growled, trying to tug free a short knife from her shoulders, shaving her Undead heart, to no avail. "How the hell did a newborn like that get so powerful! I swear I'll get her back ten fold!"

"The new one? The one that Master Brandus brought the other evening?" the human said.

"Yes, Regina! Her name's Lina or something! Now let us be! We're in a foul mood!" they shouted as they continued to make there way to wherever they were heading.

Regina blinked dazedly. "Lina..." She repeated. She walked down the hallway from where the injured vampires came from.

"Lina...Lina...Lina..." she kept repeating to herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Another weird chill ran down Lina's spine as Mel found Cathy in the bustling kitchen. She shrugged it off and tried to ignore the good smell in the kitchen. 

They were cooking food for the humans and if Lina were still alive, she would have salivated a gallon already. But as she was, she didn't think she could break a sweat even if she ran a hundred miles. She went into a short despair as she thought of all the yummy food she was going to miss.

Cathy of preparing two bowls of soup for Luka and Mirna as she answered their question.

"Oh, Master Joseph?" she said. "He's probably at the Fountain in the garden behind the castle. He's always at the Fountain by now."

"Are you okay?" Marcus asked as Lina looked dazedly around the kitchen.

Lina hung her head. "Yeah. I'm just looking at all the food I'm missing out on. It smells so GOOD!"

Cathy giggled. "Of course it's good, Miss Lina! The head chef is the best!"

If Lina could cry, she would have. "Good and free, all you can eat food! It's like heaven here for me if I were human!"

She turned towards the exit and said, "Let's get outta here before I'm more depressed."

The two humans of Turquoise laughed. "She's so funny."

The priest's mouth quirked up into a smile. "She IS different from the others."

XXXXXXXXX

Upon having a good laugh on Lina's expense, Mel lead them to the garden behind the Turquoise castle. If it were in daylight, the garden would have been green and beautiful. Perhaps similiar to the day her friends buried her body, but Lina wouldn't have a clue to that. 

Mel pointed towards a closed flower bud. He glanced at Lina and said, "That's the Moon Terra. It blooms once every Blue Moon. Actually, Mistress Lilith was the one who planted and tended to it maybe a hundred years ago."

"Hmm...I see," Lina said.

"Now if we walk around this and over here, we'll arrive at the Fountain..." Mel explained and walked around the big patch of Moon Terra.

Walking by the Moon Terra, Lina saw a small tombstone resting beyond a green bush. One pure, white flower budded alone in front of the stone.

"Master Joseph is right there, Miss Lina," Mel's voice called out in front of her, pointing towards a huge, white marbled fountain with an angel carved in the middle of the cold water pond. There Lina saw Joseph looking at the night sky.

Lina made a gesture of sighing and said, "Okay, Mel, this won't take long. Can you two just wait for me here?"

Mel and Marcus nodded as Lina made her way towards the Fountain.

"What do you want?" he asked without looking at her.

Lina stopped a few paces away. "I just need to ask some questions."

He grunted but didn't say anything else.

Lina cleared her throat and said, "You were one of the last ones to have come back from visiting the outside, right?"

He shrugged and turned his red eyes to look at her. "I wouldn't know."

Lina already felt exasperrated. She should've came up with a better approach. "Okay, I'm assuming so since the last commotion was caused by you bringing those three here."

Joseph didn't say anything and turned his eyes to watch the sky once again.

"When you were outside, did you sense or see any other Hunter tracks?" Lina asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

To this Joseph turned back to look at her and quirked an eyebrow. "I wasn't paying attention to any other Hunters besides the two I was fighting. Why do you ask?"

Lina scratched the back of her head and said, "Well, it's not like Brandus told me to keep it quiet." She sat down beside Joseph. "They think there's a Dunpeal trying to get in here."

Joseph's eyes widened slightly. "What?"

Lina nodded. "And I'm supposed to find some information from anyone who's been outside recently."

"A Dunpeal..." Joseph said faintly. "Well, I can't say I saw any traces of it but then again, I wasn't trying to look..."

"Right...well, I was expecting as much," Lina said and stood up. "Thanks anyway."

As she turned around to walk back to the two waiting for her by the patch of flower work, Joseph's voice called out, "Camille should have been outside as well. She usually stays out as late as possible. You should question her as well."

Lina turned her head and made a face. "Anybody but her..."

Joseph smirked. "I wish you luck."

Lina hung her head. "Yeah, I'll need it."

She made her way back to the other two waiting idly around.

"Did you find out anything, Miss Lina?" Mel asked.

Lina shook her head. "Nothing useful."

"So what now?" Marcus asked as they made their way out of the garden.

Lina sighed deeply. "Now? Now, we walk into the black widow's web."

"What?" the two humans said simultaneously.

Lina chuckled as she made her way out of the garden. "Well, she's not as dangerous as the black widow...just really annoying, I guess."

"Huh?" the two humans looked at each other and shrugged.

Lina made no indication of explaining anything further. At least, not yet. The three walked purposefully back into the old mansion, unaware of the dark shadow that seemed to cling to the large tree a few feet away from the doorway.

XXXXXXXXX

Notes: All I'm gonna say is SORRY! Forgive me:P 


End file.
